


4 


ae 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/primitivechurchoOOlans_0 






Cy 

~N OV10 W926 | 
Cg. = 

ae <2ogion, ge 


PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


THE CHURCH IN THE DAYS 
OF THE APOSTLES 





BY 


D. 1..LANSLOTS, O.S.B. 


WITH A PREFACE BY THE 


RERe Ver Ou NELUBY. Doi 
BISHOP OF OKLAHOMA 


B. HERDER BOOK CO., 
15 & 17 SOUTH BROADWAY, ST. LOUIS, MO., 
AND 
33 QU EEN SQUARE, LONDON, W. G 
1926 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
Printed in U. S. A. 


IMPRIMI POTEST 
Die 29 Deeley 
Ernestus Helmstetter, O.S.B. 
Abbas B. M. Immac. et Pres. Congre. Amer -Cass. 


NIHIL OBSTAT 
Sti, Ludovici, die 17. Mazi, 1926, 
Joannes Rothensteiner 


Censor Librorum 


IMPRIMATUR 
Sti, Ludovici, die 20. Mau, 1926, 
* Joannes J. Glennon, D.D, 
Archiepiscopus 


Copyright, 1926 
by B. HERDER BOOK CO. 


Vau-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton and New York 


PREFACE 
BY 
Tue Ricgut Rev. Francis C..Ketrey, D.D., 
BISHOP OF OKLAHOMA 


The man who has inherited a noble name and 
lives up to it, even though miserably poor in the 
goods of this world, loves to dwell upon the first 
heroic gestures with which his line began. The far- 
ther he can trace back that line, the more satisfaction 
and joy does he bring to his study. 

Here is a history that tells of the first heroic ges- 
tures of what may well be called the Miracle of 
Christianity’s Spread, the first circlet on the tiara of 
the Church after her ennobling at Pentecost. As 
members of that Church this is a story we should 
love and cherish, because it is the story of the begin- 
nings of the line of our spiritual ancestry. 

Joubert said that “Religion makes it the duty of 
the pauper to be liberal, noble, generous, and mag- 
nificent in charity.” The Church has conferred that 
nobility on her followers, which is one of the reasons 
why she changed the face of the world. No one can 


read the record of her first seventy years without 
iii 


1V PREFACE 


marvelling at the wonder of them in their accomplish- 
ments. It is like seeing a statue take form under the 
hands of the artist. 

Here the artist was Charity; but Charity released 
from the bonds that confined her to one race and 
given the freedom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
Poor as were the preachers of Christ crucified, they 
had His religion, and through it they were liberal, 
noble, generous, and magnificent with the Charity 
that is alike the inspiration of the Church and her 
treasure. The story told in this book is the Peerage 
of Christianity, its joy and its pride; as well as our 
own urge to emulate the Apostolic hunger for con- 
quest in Christ’s name. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER First. THE CHURCH A PERFECT SOCIETY 
IN ITS OWN RIGHT 

CHAPTER SECOND. THE FIRST Visine HEAD AFTER 
Curist’s ASCENSION ; 

CHAPTER THIRD. THE FIRST eee 

CuHapTeR FourtH. THE Reticious LIFE OF THE 
insT /GGHRISTIANS). 3 te nyse 

CHAPTER FIFTH. ECONOMIC Gee ion OF THE 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH . t NGA Vi 

CHAPTER SIXTH. FIRST pereecu one OF THE 
CHURCH Sot eh eM ARS RB AE ALLS PaO Na YA 

CHAPTER SEVENTH. Mary, THE MoTHER OF JESUS . 

CHAPTER EIGHTH. First MissioNARY EFFORTS OUT- 
SIDE OF JERUSALEM . 

CHAPTER NINTH. OAS BRL OF fon eye? AND 
HIS CALL TO THE APOSTOLATE . 

CHAPTER TENTH. - First MISSIONARY Berner AMONG 
THE GENTILES SCN RLY UME ar MONSON gure a 

CHAPTER ELEVENTH. ELUCIDATION OF Two IMPoR- 
TANT POINTs 

CHAPTER TWELFTH. THE AVR AND THE ae 
WRITTEN Worp 

CHAPTER | HIRTEENTH. I EPERSTON OF THE NTL 
AND FouNDING OF THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH . 

CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. DEATH OF ST. JAMES AND 
IMPRISONMENT OF ST. PETER. . . i 

CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. First APOSTOLIC TOUR OF : St. 
PRU LO renee hts 

CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. Sr. PETER IN aRoMe 


PAGE 


I 


8 
23 


3] 
39 


46 
58 


64 
74 
85 
91 

102 

110 

121 


com yay 
141 


vi CONTENTS 


PAGE 
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH. THE COUNCIL OF JERUSA- 


CLEMO eae SO PRC CO Mana Oe 2 
CHAPTER eee PAuUL’s SECOND EVANGELICAL 

TOUR uae CR OE eS. nis aie een 
CHAPTER bastante PAUL AT ATHENS AND AT 

CorRINTH .~ . Rie GMMR HSMN Ba Ge (50 


CHAPTER setae Tue Cuurcy At Eruesus . 178 
CHAPTER TWENTY-FirstT. PAuL’s THIRD APOSTOLIC 


OURS ek ie) Ail ICO 
CHAPTER IT WENTY- SoS end: Last VIsIT TO 

JERUSALEM. . ANU Ss The 
CHAPTER TUR CAN ATA) PAUL IN PRISON AT CASA- 

REA i tibet RU ea BACs USN SiS AP hah 
CHAPTER TWENTY-FoURTH. PAUL ON HIS Way TO 

RoME ge ea RS Pe ECS SS a ry 
CHAPTER I WENTY- sear. PETER AND PAUL IN ROME 

AND THEIR MARTYRDOM  ..__.. dee 
CHAPTER IT WENTY-SIXTH. THE (repens Waireee OF 

THE NEW, TESTAMENT 340.003 Rate h 


CHAPTER IT WENTY-SEVENTH. IHE ciinpeease OF on 
PETER UP TO THE END OF THE First Century . 247 


CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH. THE DESTRUCTION OF 


JERUSALEM... Oe a Ue re 
CHAPTER Tate NTE HERESIES OF THE FIRST 

CENTURY PIR tar er 
CHAPTER THIRTIETH. PUBLIC WoRSHIP IN THE DAYS 

OF THE APOSTLES sh Gee . 264 
CHAPTER THIRTY-FirsT. THE Grae Concent pane 

SECUTIONS IN THE Days OF THE APOSTLES . . 2/7 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND. ST. JOHN AND THE END OF 
THE APOSTOLIC: AGE. \valis aun ee 


INTRODUCTION 


The period of the Church’s history of which this 
book treats, seems to have a special attraction for 
our contemporary scientists of all shades. Civil and 
religious origins are as a field unexplored, appealing 
especially to modern science: the origin of Christi- 
anity and its development are no exception. After 
Christ had consecrated His teaching with His blood, 
the Church existed, but to have her fulfil the mission 
entrusted to her, meant the long and generous work 
of the Apostles, guided and assisted by the superior 
power of the Holy Ghost. It is almost impossible 
to understand Christianity rightly without consider- 
ing its origin and early development. As embryology 
is the basis of good and sound physiology, so does 
the origin of a thing help the study of its develop- 
ment. The problem of the natural or the super- 
natural of a religion cannot be solved without research 
into its beginning. The difficulties and obstacles en- 
countered and overcome in the beginning of Christi- 
anity furnished our ancient apologists one of their 
most convincing arguments in favor of its divinity. 
The activity of Renan and the unbelieving ration- 
alists of our day is aimed especially at undermining 
the first and second century of Christianity, which 

vil 


Vill INTRODUCTION 


period seemed somewhat neglected by our ancient 
apologists, probably for the reason that it was sup- 
posed to be well known. As error in religious mat- 
ters always invites the attention of the right-minded 
and brings out the truth, the rationalists have forced 
Catholics and sincere Protestants alike to reaffirm 
and to prove the principle of the supernatural. The 
followers of Strauss and Baur do not consider so much 
the personality of Christ as the activity of the 
Apostles in itself and in its consequences. Facts 
well established must convince even a rationalist; 
while he may not admit the supernatural, he must 
give up many of his prejudices. Unbelief is the mis- 
fortune, not merely of those who claim that the 
human mind has no limits and that reason will find 
some time a natural explanation of any fact, but also 
of those who admit these false theories without argu- 
ment or enquiry. 

The present-day attitude on the part of many men 
of so-called science, who follow in the steps of their 
rationalist confréres, as also the attitude of society 
in many quarters, is under many respects very similar 
to what it was when Christianity came to reform and 
transform it—the world—low morality, the same con- 
fusion of ideas, the same hostility to the Church, 
who is denied not only the rights she claims, but 
even the rights of any society duly organized. The 
Church of all times and places feels the need and at 
the same time the intrinsic power to adapt herself to 


INTRODUCTION 1X 


circumstances; in the face of a world turning to 
paganism, she realizes the obligation of asserting her- 
self apostolic for self-preservation. She therefore 
recalls to mind the early days of her existence and 
the wonders worked by her heroes. The history of 
the Apostolic Age, from the first Christian Pentecost 
up to the death of St. John, reveals the Church as the 
divine Founder left her, and as the Apostles divinely 
inspired applied the teaching of their Master to the 
multifarious conditions of society, high and low, at 
that time. 

No one can reasonably lay claim to the name of 
Christian if his belief and practice have little in 
common with the teaching of the Apostles. They 
preached the one faith; the believer in the Bible as the 
inspired word of God, or even a good philosopher, 
could not admit more than one faith in matters of 
religion. God cannot contradict Himself; He cannot 
but reveal the same identical truths when He ad- 
dresses them to many. 

After admitting that Christ is God, and that His 
Church will endure up to the end of time, the con- 
clusion cannot be denied that the Church now must 
be in all essentials the same as she was in the days of 
the Apostles. The Christian society in the days of 
the Apostles was one; if any one disagreed with it in 
matters of faith, he ceased to be a member. There 
are hundreds of Christian denominations now, all 
claiming membership in that society, but their claim 


X INTRODUCTION 


is absurd because faith is one. With the help of 
divine Revelation concerning the teaching of the Re- 
deemer, and with the application of that teaching 
by the Apostles, as recorded in their inspired acts and 
writings, and with the further assurance that heaven 
and earth shall pass away, but that Christ’s words 
shall not pass away; any unbiased enquirer after the 
truth would discover what the standard of present- 
day faith and morality should be. The history of 
the Primitive Church must reflect itself in the present- 
day Church, if it is to be considered the continuation 
of the Primitive Church. This makes that history 
of supreme importance to all that lay claims to the 
name of Christian. 
THE AUTHOR 


THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


CHAPFER FIRST 
THE CHURCH A PERFECT SOCIETY IN ITS OWN RIGHT 


THERE are two powers recognized and established 
by God for the government of the world—the civil 
and the religious or ecclesiastical. Some persons are 
endowed from above with power to govern the 
commonwealth and to promote the temporal welfare 
of its citizens; and others to rule the Church of Christ 
and to procure the spiritual welfare of all mankind. 
Each of the two powers is supreme in its own right. 
Does the Church hold her powers of government from 
the civil authority? Did the Founder of Christianity 
—Jesus Christ—give authority over it to the civil 
power? Did the faithful give itr Is the supreme 
civil authority such that all spiritual matters are sub- 
jected to it? Do the peace and prosperity of the 
commonwealth demand that all authority be con- 
centrated in the civil ruler? The true answers to 
these questions should settle the relationship between 
Church and State. If it had been Christ’s intention 
to give to the civil powers authority over His 
Church, He would have prepared these powers for the 

1 


Z THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


task in the same way as He trained His Apostles; 
He certainly could have done so; but there is not one 
word nor any indication on Christ’s part to that 
effect. For the first three hundred years there were 
no temporal rulers, to whom the destinies of the 
Church could have been entrusted; the Roman em- 
perors were deadly enemies of the Christian religion. 
The fact that they were not Christians was not an 
obstacle; the Apostles were not Christians when 
Christ called them to the apostolate. If Christ had 
wished to entrust His Church to the tender care of 
temporal sovereigns, He would have called and in- | 
structed them. 

The power to govern the Church belongs to the 
supernatural order, because her existence and her 
purpose are supernatural. If Christ then has made 
no exception, the government of the Church cannot 
belong to a natural and inferior power; no such ex- 
ception is recorded. , 

Unity of faith is the supreme law of the Church; 
this unity cannot be had without God’s help, which 
for the purpose is nowhere promised to secular 
authorities. 

If the government of the Church was by Christ’s 
institution committed to the secular power, the body 
of the faithful should not only have been informed of 
it, but such ordinance should have been carried out. 
History records that the reverse is the case and that 
whenever the secular authorities assumed any part 
of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the Church invariably 
protested. The secular rulers who gave the best 


Tibco OnNonvArh ene Te SsOC 1k Ty 0 


proofs of their devotion to the Church, took good care 
not to invade the domain of Church government. 

That right was not given to them by Christ for 
their prominence within the Church; the chief secular 
ruler is not a chief member of the Church on account 
of his position. Church and State are quite distinct 
powers, membership of the one does not necessarily 
mean membership of the other. The chief of a state 
is not a member of the Church because he is chief, 
but because he has been baptized. In the Old Testa- 
ment the government of the synagogue belonged to 
the priests, not to the kings. The power to rule the 
Church could not have been conveyed by the faithful, 
because they themselves did not possess it. 

Peace and tranquillity, which are the main purpose 
of a state, can not be secured without some religious 
cult, but the conclusion that therefore the whole gov- 
ernment of all spiritual and temporal matter is com- 
mitted to secular rulers goes far beyond the premises. 
We all need many things to support life, but we are 
not therefore justified in securing them by infringing 
the rights of the lawful owners. Peace within a state 
is necessary to the happiness of its citizens and as it 
cannot be had without religion, the state should en- 
courage religion, and with its help promote the wel- 
fare of the people. 

Needless to say that the Church has always resisted 
the encroachments of secular rulers. St. Ambrose 
furnishes us a proof of it. Emperor Valentinian I] 
insisted upon obtaining a basilica for the Arians. 
St. Ambrose told him: “You order me to give up 


4 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


a basilica. My answer is: It is unlawful for me to 
give it and inexpedient for you to accept it. You 
can not seize the house of a private citizen and yet 
you would despoil the Church of Gode They say 
that everything is permissible to the Emperor and 
that everything belongs to him; I answer: Do not 
be mistaken, Emperor; imperial rights do not extend 
to things divine.’ On another occasion he was cited 
about a question of faith before lay-judges. He an- 
swered the Emperor as follows: “If a bishop is to 
be taught by a layman, the layman will teach and 
the bishop will listen; the layman will instruct the 
bishop. If you remember the Scriptures or olden 
times you will find that in matters of faith the bishops 
judge the Christian emperors, but not the emperors 
the bishops.” On a different occasion he reminded 
the Emperor of the answer his father had given to 
certain bishops who had asked for permission to as- 
semble in synod. “It does not belong to me,” he 
said, “as a mere layman, to inquire curiously into 
similar matters; let the priests to whom they belong 
meet wherever they please.” St. Ambrose has given 
us the answer of the Church to all civil despots, 
whether he be a Nero, a Napoleon, or a Bismarck. 

The Church has always claimed to be a perfect 
society in her own right and independent of any other 
society. A society is perfect in itself, when for its 
scope and for the means to it, it is self-sufficient; such 
is the case with the Church. 

The purpose of her institution is to perpetuate the 
mission of Christ,—the work of our redemption, and 


Pi eenuReCHeArPERPECGT SOCIETY "> 


to carry out His plan in regard to our salvation. 
This purpose is unique and is not subordinated to the 
end of any other society. The means appointed by 
Christ to attain the end are self-sufficient. As the 
Church aims at supernatural blessings, it far excels 
all civil societies aiming at worldly goods only. The 
final purpose of the Church is the eternal salvation 
of souls through supernatural means. The state can 
aim only at temporal prosperity, which can only in- 
directly be useful to the salvation of souls. 

The Church needs temporal property to carry on 
her work, but that does not imply that she is destitute 
of the necessary means to the end. Christ Himself 
has given power to the Church to acquire the tem- 
poral means that may be useful to the end, and has 
arranged that those who serve the Gospel shall live 
by the Gospel (1 Cor. IX.14). The fact that the 
Church needs material help does not make her the 
inferior of the State, no more than man requiring 
food becomes inferior to it. We can not conclude 
from the fact that the State needs the Church, as a 
promoter and a safeguard of the moral order, that 
the welfare of the State is the supreme purpose of 
the Church; not everything that is useful or necessary 
to another thereby becomes a subordinate means to 
- the other. The Angels help us, yet they rank above 
us; so is the Church, though helpful to the State, far 
above it. 

All power comes from above; no society can have 
any authority except it be so given. Christ made 
His Church a kingdom, that is to say, a perfect 


6 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


society in itself, fully sufficient to itself and not nec- 
essarily dependent upon any other; the multitude 
and diversity of its adherents are quite able to pro- 
vide the material needs. There is another difference 
between the kingdom of the Church and any other. 
No country has the guarantee of permanent indepen- 
dence: it may disintegrate and be absorbed by a 
more powerful country and become a province. 
There is no fear of the Church being absorbed by any 
state, because it is above it, nor by any other spirit- 
ual power, because by Christ’s institution and promise 
there can be no other spiritual kingdom upon earth. 
The government of the Church is different from that 
of all other states. The spiritual dominion of the 
Church extends to whatever place may harbor its 
adherents; the civil power is limited to the citizens 
within its own confines. The authority of the Church 
in no way decreases the authority of the State, be- 
cause it covers matters that are not of the competency 
of the State. 

The study of the first century of the Christian era 
will furnish the views which the Apostles entertained 
in theory and in practice concerning the relation- 
ship between Church and State. They have taught 
us by word and example that the Church is a fully 
self-sufficient society, endowed with all the means 
required for the salvation of souls (Eph. L223 3hve 
1-11). The Apostles have carried out their mission 
independently of the civil powers. Their successors 
have proceeded in the same way, and invariably 
vindicated the rights of the Church against the most 


THE CHURCH A PERFECT SOCIETY = 7 


powerful of despots. There can be no society with- 
out authority; no kingdom without a king. The 
Church being a visible society must have a visible 
head. All admit that Christ after His Ascension 
remains the invisible head of the Church. Who was 
the first to be invested by Christ with the supreme 
authority over the whole Church—the kingdom of 
Christ upon earth? 


CHAPTER SECOND 


THE FIRST VISIBLE HEAD OF THE CHURCH 
AFTER CHRIST'S ASCENSION 


Sr. PETER is called the Prince of the Apostles, and 
justly so, because he was appointed by Christ to be 
the visible head of the Church in preference to the 
other Apostles. This supremacy in the college of 
Apostles and in the government of the Church was 
promised to Peter and to him alone. 

The primacy of Peter is one of the revealed truths 
most clearly recorded in the Bible. In this instance 
there is much significance in a name. Peter's name 
had been Simon before. To make it plain that the 
words of promise apply to Simon exclusively, Christ 
gave him the name of Peter (Matt. XVI.17-19). 
When Christ spoke of the rock on which He would 
build His Church, He designated Peter; Christ speak- 
ing in Aramaic called him Kephas, meaning both 
Peter and rock (Jo. 1.42). In Aramaic and also in 
French the same word designates a person and a rock. 
In the words of the promise to Peter the metaphor of 
the foundation is explained by the metaphor of the 
keys (Matt. XVI.18-19). Christ intended to reward 
the magnificent profession of faith on the part of 
Peter with an equally splendid prerogative. He alone 

g 


FIRST VISIBLE HEAD OF CHURCH 9 


makes the profession; he alone receives the reward. 
Peter alone is called blessed because he alone had 
been favored by the Father with a special revelation. 
The primacy promised to Peter concerns the very 
constitution and the government of the Church. He 
is not called the foundation of the Church because he 
worked harder and with greater constancy than the 
others, but that he may prove himself superior to all 
attacks. Our Lord says expressly: “The gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it,” that is, against the 
Church built upon Peter—the rock. That foundation 
is just as essential to the Church as a foundation is 
to a house. The foundation comes first in the 
building process. If we consider the beginning of 
the Church, all those who first taught the doctrines 
of the Church and those by whom the Church was 
propagated are in a sense the foundations of it. With 
respect to teaching, the Apostles and the Prophets are 
called the foundation of the Church (Eph. I1.20). 
In regard to the propagation the Apostles are called 
the foundations (Apo. XXI.14). Foundation, how- 
ever, signifies more properly the support of the whole 
building; in that sense Peter alone is the foundation; 
to Peter as the foundation the Church owes its firm- 
ness, not to be shaken by any power whatsoever. No 
other Apostle is called Peter-rock—and therefore no 
other supports the whole church as a rock. 

Christ in promising the primacy of jurisdiction to 
Simon, also uses another symbol,—that of the keys 
(Matt. XVI.19). The keys express the power to 
administrate and rule. The symbol of the keys like 


10 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


that of the foundation rock proves that Peter was 
to be the head and the prince of the Apostles. The 
image expresses that the supreme power in the Church 
was promised to Peter, to whom all others having keys 
would be subject. When Christ afterwards gives to 
the other Apostles the power to bind and to loose, 
He does not use the metaphor of the keys (Matt. 
XVIIL.18). They had indeed the power to open 
heaven and to shut it, but that power was not supreme 
such as would be designated by the keys. 

Peter’s privilege did not consist in this that he first 
of all opened the gates of heaven to the Jews (Acts 
11.34-41) and the Gentiles, because this happened 
only once and could not be repeated, any more than 
that America could have been discovered twice. It 
seems ridiculous to imagine that Our Lord made the 
solemn promise to Peter simply to signify that he 
would exercise the power entrusted to him a little 
while before the other Apostles. 

The primacy of government is promised to Peter 
in the same singular manner as the power to bind 
and to loose. To bind does not mean only to declare 
that something is illicit, but also to prohibit; to loose 
is not only to declare a thing licit, but also to permit 
it. Our Lord therefore clearly indicates the fullest 
‘power to govern. 

The divinely acquired knowledge and profession of 
Christ’s divinity distinguished Peter from the other 
Apostles; there would have been no difference in the 
reward, if the same power had been promised to all. 
The illustrations used by Christ clearly show that 


FIRST VISIBLE HEAD‘ OF GHURGH? <i 


greater power is given to Peter. But did not Christ 
say to Peter: “Go behind me, Satan?” (Matt. XVI. 
23). When Peter played the part of a tempter, the 
primacy had been promised to him, but not conferred. 
The Apostles themselves may have thought that by 
those words the promise had been affected, but sub- 
sequent events prove that such was not the case. 
As long as Christ dwelled with His Apostles in a 
visible manner, Peter, though the first among them, 
could not claim obedience from them. The preroga- 
tives conferred upon Peter show that some day he 
would be their visible head. Christ imposed upon 
him the name of Peter; it can not have been given in 
vain; it must signify some future event. In the 
Old Testament the name divinely given to Abram 
indicated what was to happen to him. Simon the 
son of Jonas is called Peter—the rock—upon which 
the Church is to be built; what the foundation is to 
a building that is the head to a society. Christ is 
the cornerstone of that spiritual edifice; what Christ 
was in the institution and will remain forever in an 
invisible manner, Peter will be, as Christ’s vicegerent, 
in a visible manner. 

Christ promised that Peter would be in catching 
men what he had been in catching fish; Peter had 
been the chief actor in the miraculous draught. In 
the Gospel narrative the sea is a picture of the world; 
the fishes, of men, and the fishermen, of the Apostles. 
Both Simon and Andrew hear from the lips of the 
Master: “I will make you to be fishers of men” 
(Matt. 1V.19). Christ made a special promise in the 


12 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


case of Peter: “Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt 
catch men” (Luke V.10). Simon is exhibited to 
us as the chief in this fishing party; his ship is 
chosen, he is ordered to launch out into the deep, 
and to let down the net. At the sight of the miracle 
Peter fell down at Jesus’ feet; the other Apostles are 
treated as inferiors; Jesus addresses only Simon. If 
this material fishing is a picture of spiritual fishing, 
and if Christ’s promise is to be fulfilled, Peter must 
act as head and chief in this spiritual fishing and 
among the fishers of men. 7 

Christ prays particularly for Peter that his faith 
might not fail, so that he could confirm his brethren 
‘n the faith after Christ’s Ascension. The particular 
visible mission of Christ among His Apostles is trans- 
ferred unto Peter. Christ said to him: “Simon, 
Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that 
he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for 
thee that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once con- 
verted, confirm thy brethren” (Luke XXTBigaze 
All are desired, but Christ prays for one. Praying 
for one was sufficient, if all were to be confirmed in 
that one and if all were subject to him; Christ en- 
trusted them all in the time of danger to the care of 
Peter. Christ prepared Peter more particularly for 
the charge He put upon him. If Peter is to take the 
place of Christ, visible head of the Church, he must 
know Him more intimately and love Him more 
ardently, because in his official capacity he is to a 
certain extent one and the same with his Chief. 


Elo levolDeeeno A Or SCHUREH 7715 


Peter was the inseparable companion of Christ. 
Sometimes Christ took Peter, James, and John with 
Him; often Peter alone was chosen. Christ goes into 
Peter’s ship; he is ordered to cast a hook into the sea, 
and take from the mouth of the fish to be caught a 
coin. The same tax is paid for Christ and for Peter 
(Matt. XVII.26). Peter was with Christ on the 
water (XIV.29). This intimate companionship must 
have impressed the other Apostles and prepared them 
for a recognition of the primacy promised to Peter. 
When Christ was still on earth, Peter often acted as 
the leader of the Apostles. In their name he ad- 
dressed the Master: Behold, we have left all things. 
Lord, to whom shall we go? (Jo. VI.69). Lord, dost 
Thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all? 
(Luke XI1.41). Simon and they that were with him, 
followed after Him (Mark 1.36). In Luke VIII.45 
and I X.32 the same expression occurs. This manner 
of speaking denotes a leader, a chief. Whenever the 
names of the Apostles are given Peter always heads 
the list. This is not because he was the oldest, or the 
first called, because under both respects Andrew 
ranked first; there could be no other reason than that 
of his dignity. When Matthew gives the names of 
the twelve Apostles (X.2) he expressly adds: The 
first, Peter. When Our Lord reprimands His Apos- 
tles for their contention as to who would be the great- 
est, He condemns domineering and ostentation, but 
not dignity and authority. We can hardly suppose 
that there could have been any such contention, unless 


14 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the Apostles had understood from the words of Christ 
that they would not be equal, and that Peter was 
preferred to the others. 

After His resurrection Christ gives the proofs that 
Peter’s denial had not caused Him to annul the 
promise. On the day of Christ’s Resurrection the 
Angel told the women: Go and tell his disciples and 
Peter (Mark XVI.7). Peter only is mentioned by 
name that all might understand that his sin had not 
changed Christ’s plan. 

Scripture has recorded when the promised primacy 
was actually conferred on Peter. The risen Christ 
appeared to His disciples at the lake of Tiberias, and 
the following conversation ensues between Our Lord 
and Peter: “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? 
He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I 
love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. He 
- saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou 
me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He 
saith to him: Feed my lambs. He saith to him 
the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to 
him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest 
that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep” 
(Jo. XXI.15-17). It is evident that Christ’s promise 
had to be fulfilled some time; the above words clearly 
indicate the fulfilment. Peter is commissioned to 
feed the whole flock, that is, the universal Church. 
Christ was about to leave the world and return to 
heaven. It was proper that the supreme visible head 
of the Church should be pointed out just as clearly 
as he had been promised. It could not have been 


EIS So BEE BAD OR GHURGH #15 


done in clearer terms than those we read in the gos- 
pel. A fishing party offered the occasion for the 
promise and for its fulfilment. 

The words quoted above clearly show that to Peter 
and to Peter alone a special charge is entrusted; that 
charge could be no other than the supreme power 
as head of the Apostles, and of the whole Church. 
To feed the sheep and the lambs is the same as to 
tule. He is made the shepherd of the flock, of which 
even the Apostles are members. They will go and 
deliver the good tidings to all nations; they will have 
authority over all; Peter alone will be their superior. 

Peter understood his mission; the Apostles under- 
stood it, and their acts confirm it. Peter presides at 
the election of a successor to Judas (Acts 1.15). 
Peter is the first to preach the Gospel. The efficacy of 
his words and the gift of miracles gather the first 
converts into the fold. Peter plays the chief role in 
the work by visiting all (Acts IX.32). Peter is the 
first to be warned in a vision that the time had ar- 
rived to receive the Gentiles into the Church. The 
great Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul, having been 
taught by Christ Himself, did not need instruction 
from Peter or the other Apostles, yet he went to pay 
his respects to Peter, and remained with him two 
weeks. Of the other Apostles, he had seen none but 
James, who was then Bishop of Jerusalem. Peter 
acted in the council of the Apostles at Jerusalem as 
head of the Church, and was recognized by the Apos- 
tles as such; Peter speaks and all the multitude 
held their peace, and approved his decision; Paul 


16 THE PPIMITIVE CHURCH 


and James speak, but only to uphold Peter’s infallible 
judgment in matters of faith and morals (Acts XV. 
7-12). Christ gave a visible head to the Church in 
the person of Peter in order to effect and to preserve 
its unity. By making Peter the foundation He made 
him the supreme ruler; by giving to him the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven He made him the supreme 
dispenser; by entrusting the whole flock to his care 
He made him the chief shepherd. Peter is so 
appointed that he might do in a visible way what 
Christ does for His Church in an invisible manner. 
As the Church is to last unto the end of time as 
Christ established it, so there must always be a 
visible head. 

The above considerations are all the more impor- 
tant, as without them it would be impossible to form 
an idea of the Church, as Christ founded it. 

A few occurrences in the days of which we write 
might, if misunderstood, throw a shadow upon the 
primacy of Peter. 

The first of these is the mission of Peter to Samaria. 
Philip the Deacon, when expelled from Jerusalem in 
the persecution that followed the death of St. Ste- 
phen, proceeded north and converted many Samari- 
tans to the faith. When the Apostles, who remained 
in Jerusalem, heard this, they sent unto them Peter 
and John (Acts VIII.14). Can we argue from that 
fact that the college of Apostles was superior to Peter? 
We must distinguish a mission by authority from a 
mission by request. If Peter was sent by a superior, 
we must admit that Peter was not the superior. To 


FIRST VISIBLE HEAD OF CHURCH | 17 


understand how he was sent, we must remember his 
position as explained above. The Bible abundantly 
proves that all missions do not imply inferiority. 
What Christian will admit that the Son is inferior to 
the Father, because He was sent by Him into this 
world? We read in the book of Josue (XXII) that 
the children of Israel sent on a mission Phinees the 
priest and ten others, each a chief of one of the 
tribes. Again we read (Acts XV) that when the ques- 
tion of circumcision was raised for the converted 
Gentiles, the faithful at Antioch sent Paul and 
Barnabas to consult the Apostles in Jerusalem. The 
great Jewish historian Josephus records that the Jews 
sent their high-priest Ismael on a mission to Emperor 
Nero in Rome. Why did the Apostles request Peter 
to go when the other Apostles might have done just 
as well? The sacred text does not give the reasons, 
but we may suppose that the old ill-feeling between 
the Samaritans and the Jews demanded the presence 
of the chief of the Apostles to overcome all resistance 
and objections on either side. It is as in the phys- 
ical order; the more the various elements tend to 
repel each other, the greater must be the power in 
the principle to obtain cohesion. Another reason 
may have been that the presence of the chief was 
required to offset the nefarious efforts of Simon the 
Magician. Simon had preceded Philip in Samaria, 
and gave himself out as some great one (Acts VIII). 
Simon was one of Philip’s converts; but his desire to 
buy the power to give the Holy Ghost showed that 
he could not be depended upon. His heart was not 


18 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


right in the sight of God. One endowed with 
supreme authority was required to paralyze the 
seductions of this sovereign impostor. Supposing, 
however, that Peter went by request, why was John 
sent with hime John certainly was not the superior 
of the other Apostles. This is not the first instance 
when Peter and John went together. They appear 
together in the cure of the lame man and after that 
before the Sanhedrim; Peter plays the chief role, even 
when in the company of St. John. Far from proving 
anything against the primacy the mission to Samaria 
rather confirms it. 

Another objection may be found in the rebuke 
administered to Peter by the newly converted Jews 
in Jerusalem, after he had received Gentiles into the 
Church without circumcision: ‘Why didst thou go 
to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them? 
(Acts X1.3). Peter explains to them the vision of 
Cornelius and his own. Peter is called to task; he 
humbly submits, therefore he was not the chief; is 
that conclusion good logic? Who are the remon- 
strants in this caseP Not the Apostles, but the new 
converts from Judaism, who had not abandoned their 
views of superiority over the Gentiles. Is Peter their 
inferior? Is the rebuke administered to him one in 
the odious sense of the word? This is not clear from 
the text. In the supposition that it was taken very 
seriously, would the rebellion prove anything against 
the primacy? It is only a repetition of what hap- 
pened to Aaron (Numbers XVI). He had been ap- 
pointed by God as the high-priest, yet there were 


FIRST VISIBLE HEAD OF CHURCH § 19 


some who with Core, Dathan, and Abiron objected 
and coveted the dignity for themselves. But was the 
objection to Peter’s act so serious, when his accusers, 
after hearing his explanation, held their peace and 
glorified God saying: “God then hath also to the 
Gentiles given repentance unto life’ (Acts XI.18). 
You may further say: Peter at any rate had to render 
an account and this could not be demanded except of 
an inferior or an equal. | would answer you: You 
then make Peter an inferior to or an equal of the first 
converts of the Church in Jerusalem; you prove too 
much, therefore you prove nothing. When Mary 
and Joseph had lost Jesus, they, on finding Him in 
the temple, said to Him: Son, why hast thou done 
so to us? (Luke II.48). Jesus explains his act. 
Does that make Him the inferior or the equal of 
Mary and Joseph? Often in the Old Testament God 
Himself has given an account of His acts by the 
mouth of His prophets. 

The letter of St. Paul to the Galatians presents 
another difficulty. The purpose of that letter is two- 
fold: first, to refute the common error of converted 
Jews clinging to their traditions; secondly, to claim 
for himself the prerogatives of a true Apostle, as 
the Twelve chosen by Christ. These converts enter- 
tained misgivings about Paul and his mission. Paul 
compares himself with Peter, and claims that as Peter 
is the Apostle of the circumcision, so he is the Apostle 
of the Gentiles. Some pretended that Paul was not a 
true Apostle, and that his teaching did not conform 
to that of the other Apostles. Paul refutes both 


20 THE PRIMEUIV EeGHURGH 


assertions. Having received the apostolate shortly 
after his conversion from Christ Himself, he felt no 
need of any instruction or mission from the Apostles 
in Jerusalem. He went immediately to work in 
Arabia, then returned to Damascus and only after 
three years went to see Peter in Jerusalem. After 
fourteen years he returned to Jerusalem with Barna- 
bas and Titus, by divine command. Some converts 
refused to receive Titus, because he was not circum- 
cised. Titus, however, was received, which proves 
that there was no difference of opinion between Paul 
and the other Apostles. The argument of Paul was 
not with Peter or the other Apostles, but with some 
converts from Judaism. So far nothing is proved 
against the primacy of Peter; but in that same letter 
Paul writes as follows: “When Cephas was come 
to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he 
was to be blamed” (Gal. II.11). Do not these 
words argue against the primacy of Peter? ‘The 
Council of Jerusalem had exempted the Gentiles from 
the observance of the Mosaic law, and had also recog- 
nized the apostolate of Paul, but some questions had 
not been settled, such as, whether the law of Moses 
was still binding on the Jews after the coming of 
Christ; whether the Gentiles had to become Jews be- 
fore their reception into the Church. The feelings of 
the converted Jews were well known and for argu- 
ment’s sake it is immaterial whether the meeting of 
Peter and Paul occurred before or after the Council of 
Jerusalem. Peter used to eat with the Gentiles, but 
when some messengers came from James, the Bishop 


FIRST VISIBLE HEAD OF CHURCH 2l 


of Jerusalem, Peter discontinued the practice for fear 
of scandalizing those of the circumcision. Here was 
the case of dissimulation on the part of Peter. Paul 
mentions the occurrence for the only purpose of con- 
vincing the faithful of Galatia that the gospel of 
liberty, which he preached was the true gospel, to 
which even Peter after a few moments of weakness 
yielded. There is no question of a dogmatic dis- 
agreement between the two Apostles. How could 
there be, as Peter himself had had a divine revela- 
tion on the subject? Peter had baptized the heathen 
Cornelius without submitting him to any Jewish rite; 
in the Council of Jerusalem he had proclaimed salva- 
tion by grace, not by the law; he had opposed the 
pretention of the Jewish converts that Titus should 
be circumcised; he had recognized the apostolate of 
Paul. Peter perhaps looked for such an opportunity 
to settle the question of circumcision for good and 
for ever. It is easy to imagine the predicament of 
Peter, when he had to choose between the opposition 
of Paul, and the newly arrived zealots from Jeru- 
salem. Peter appeared to waver and was to blame; 
Paul won the day, but there was no question of pri- 
macy or doctrine; it was simply a question of ex- 
pediency, until it was finally settled. The opponent 
of Peter is the same Paul who, after the Council of 
Jerusalem, passed through Iconium and Lystris with 
Timothy, and circumcised him, because of the Jews 
who were in those places (Acts XVI.3). Paul knew 
from his own experience that there is a difference be- 
tween principles and their application; he knew that 


ef THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


circumstances must be taken into consideration. It 
is undeniable that Paul rebuked Peter. Did he do 
so because he considered himself Peter’s superior? 
Certainly not. Paul called himself the least of the 
Apostles. But a brotherly correction may and must 
be made sometimes, even by an inferior. Paul may 
be praised for his courage; Peter, for his sincere hu- 
mility. The occurrence shows that Paul looked upon 
Peter as an extraordinary man. 


CHAPTER THIRD 
THE FIRST PENTECOST 


THE Acts of the Apostles are, together with their 
Epistles, the inspired history of the Primitive Church, 
in the same way as the Gospels are the inspired ver- 
sion’ of the life and the teaching of Christ up to His 
glorious Ascension into Heaven. 

During the forty days after His Resurrection 
Christ had repeatedly presented Himself to the Apos- 
tles in visible form: He had eaten with them; He had 
spoken to them of the kingdom of God. This king- 
dom meant the advent of the Messiah, by Whom the 
worship of the true God had been reéstablished; it 
meant the religion of Christ and all things that be- 
long to it, that is, the whole economy of the New 
Law, or in other words the Church founded by Christ. 
Christ had commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, 
but to wait for the promise of the Father—the com- 
ing of the Holy Ghost. The Apostles still shared 
the opinion, common among the Jews at that time, 
that the Messiah would reign upon earth for the 
greater glory and happiness of the Jewish race. 
When questioned by them, Christ in His reply re- 
bukes them and insinuated that His kingdom is a 


spiritual kingdom, to be spread over the whole world 
23 


24 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


through faith, not by the sword. Christ appeared a 
last time to His Apostles on the Mount of Olives, 
and told them again of their mission; they looked up 
and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Spell- 
bound by the glorious vision they kept their eyes 
heavenwards, until assured by Angels that the glori- 
ous apparition would only be repeated at the end of 
the world. The Apostles saddened by the departure 
of their Master, yet joyful over His glory and prom- 
ised return, retraced their steps towards Jerusalem, 
and went into an upper room, which we usually call 
the Cenacle. This was the room in which Our Lord 
had celebrated the last Supper with them. Epipha- 
nius tells us that, when the Emperor Adrian visited 
the destroyed city, he found that this sanctuary was 
the only edifice to escape the general destruction. As, 
however, we are told in the last verse of St. Luke’s 
gospel that they were always in the temple, praising 
and blessing God, many argue that the upper room of 
the Acts may have been one of the many outhouses, 
adjacent to the temple. This view apparently better 
explains the scene on Pentecost day. The inspired 
word gives us a short description of the Church as 
gathered in the temple or in the Cenacle, so full of 
charming memories. In all there are about 120 per- 
sons, divided into three classes: the eleven Apostles, 
the women and chief among them Mary, the Mother 
of Jesus; she appears here for the last time in the 
gospel narrative. To make up the number of 120, 
we may suppose that the 72 disciples who had been 
formed in the school of Jesus, were also there. These 


THE FIRST PENTECOST 25 


groups may be considered as representing the three 
parts of the church—bishops, clergy, and laity, The 
little church was persevering with one mind in prayer; 
prayer will always be the most characteristic part of 
its functions; by prayer it prepared itself for its glo- 
rious mission. This mission had been in a particular 
manner entrusted to the Apostles. One of them had 
made himself unworthy of it and had died the death 
of areprobate. Judas had to be replaced to complete 
the mystic number of twelve. There had been twelve 
Patriarchs, from whom proceeded the twelve tribes of 
the chosen people; it seemed just that there should be 
twelve spiritual Patriarchs, as apostolic fathers of a 
new people. The thought was natural, but who was 
the first to formulate it to the assembled Church? 
This is the first but not the last time that we shall see 
Peter acting as chief. Historically the most impor- 
tant fact, connected with the election of Matthias is 
the position of leadership assumed by Peter. The 
Acts have recorded his discourse on that occasion. 
He begins by explaining the terrible fate of Judas. 
Then he specifies the qualities required in the one, who 
shall take his place. The candidate must have been 
with them during the life of Jesus, from the baptism 
of John up to His Ascension; he must have been an 
assiduous witness of the public life of Jesus. The 
choice was limited; apparently there were only two 
such witnesses, or only two that seemed worthy of the 
honor—Joseph and Matthias. The lots were to de- 
cide; the voters were probably the whole assembled 
church. They had not then received the Holy Ghost, 


26 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


and the plan adopted was not necessarily to be re- 
peated in future elections. A devout prayer preceded 
the casting of lots. The votes were favorable to Mat- 
thias,.who was thus numbered with the twelve Apos- 
tles. _No other particulars have come down to us 
concerning his competitor, except that on one occa- 
sion the drinking of a poisoned cup did him no harm. 

Nine days had passed since the Ascension; the 
tenth day was the solemn feast of Pentecost, one of 
the three principal feasts of the Jews; the feasts of 
Easter and of the Tabernacles were the two others. 
The first Pentecost of the Christian Church fell on a 
Sunday. As the Jews had gathered in Jerusalem for 
the occasion from all parts of the then known world, 
Jerusalem on that day was a truly cosmopolitan city. 
The celebration began on the previous evening; ac- 
cording to Hebrew custom, the small Christian com- 
munity had watched in prayer. On the morning of 
the feast, while the sacrificial offering was in progress 
in the temple, there came a sound as of a mighty wind 
filling the whole house. The breath of God passed 
on their souls and transformed them; a tongue of fire 
sat upon every one of them—the symbol of divine 
love, which enkindled their hearts. It is generally 
believed that they received from the Holy Ghost the 
gift to preach to the people around them in their own 
language. Upon that supposition another question 
was based; viz., whether the Apostles in reality spoke 
the many different languages, or speaking one—their 
own—were understood by their hearers in their own 
language. Those who had received the Holy Ghost, 


tien Rs) PENTECOST 27 


not only the Apostles, mingling with the crowd, were 
heard to speak the language of all; this does in- 
sinuate that there was no question of preaching, be- 
cause this was not the office of all, and certainly not 
of all at the same time. The first part of the wonder 
must be understood rather of praying than of preach- 
ing; they heard them speak in their own tongues of 
the wonderful works of God. Many wonder, and 
others scoff, declaring that they were full of new 
wine. Only then the preaching begins and Peter 
alone is the orator; he speaks in Aramaic or in Greek, 
but in one language only; there is no trace in the nar- 
rative of a multiplicity of languages. In addition 
to the occurrence on Pentecost day, Scripture men- 
tions other occasions, on which the gift of languages 
was repeated; the gift was not limited to the Apostles, 
but extended to the whole Christian community all 
through the strictly apostolic times, but in praying, 
not in preaching. There is no mention in the dis- 
course of Peter of preaching in foreign tongues on his 
part or on the part of his companions, not even when 
he defends them from the charge of drunkenness, al- 
though the argument would have been most conclu- 
sive. 

The above extraordinary events should not make 
us lose sight of the principal miracle on Pentecost— 
the interior transformation of the Apostles. Christ 
had described the descent of the Holy Ghost as the 
finishing touch of their moral education. The Holy 
Ghost was to be a light of truth to their minds, a 
flame of love to their hearts; He was to teach them all 


28 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


truth, and give them strength to perform their apos- 
tolic duties: God revealed Himself to them and 
through them to all others under that form of love, 
which grasps truth more firmly, diffuses it more lib- 
erally and makes it the law for action. 

These men, rough by nature, devoid of all intel- 
lectual culture, rose-through the fullness of the Spirit 
to the dazzling heighths of religious truth. Hesitat- 
ing up to then in the truths, which they had learned, 
and fearful up to cowardice in professing them, they 
found in an unconquerable faith, an invincible cour- 
age,—the courage to defy public opinion. The Holy 
Ghost has come down upon the Apostles; Christ had 
promised that He would abide with the Church for 
ever; and therefore the miracle of Pentecost is in its 
chief purpose, immanent in the Church. The Holy 
Ghost, by an unseen operation, acts on the souls of 
the just, and produces in them enlightenment and 
pious impulses, always in keeping with the aspirations 
of the Church itself. Christ had told His Apostles 
that they would receive the power of the Holy Ghost 
coming upon them, and that they were to be witnesses 
unto Him in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, 
and even to the uttermost parts of the earth. The 
first part of this message was now fulfilled; the Apos- 
tles well equipped for their work, were now to begin 
the fulfilment of the second part. 

Pentecost was the consecration of the Church and 
its solemn inauguration in the world. The time had 
come for the Apostles to speak, not only to actuate 
their zeal, but also in self-defence. Peter, as supreme 


TEES PENTECOST 29 


visible head of the infant Church, pronounced the 
first apology of Christianity. After an introduction 
throwing ridicule on the false charge of drunkenness, 
Peter appeals to an authority, admitted by the audi- 
ence—the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testament 
and especially the Prophet Joel. The Jews that sur- 
round him are the same as those, who fifty-two days 
before, inspired by hatred, had demanded the death 
of Jesus. The great stumbling block for them is the 
death of the one, who had called Himself the Messiah. 
Hence the unanswerable argument of Peter is His 
Resurrection. The Resurrection of Christ was to 
His Apostles the proof of His divinity. Peter and 
his companions had had their faith shaken, when they 
saw Him in the hands of His enemies and dying on 
the cross. Peter understood the feelings of his audi- 
ence, and was therefore well prepared to overcome 
their difficulties. He removes the scandal of the cross 
with the prophecies, which they admitted, and then 
preaches the Resurrection also foretold, and to which 
hundreds of witnesses could testify. Peter proves 
that Christ is the promised Messiah, but does not in- 
sist upon proving that the Messiah is God. 
Christianity is not a scientific system like history 
or physics, which demands great intellectual attain- 
ments to arrive at a thorough knowledge of cause and 
effect. Acceptance of Christianity was to be an act 
of virtue, affecting the intellect as well as the will; 
it would not be an act of virtue, if conviction were 
based on purely syllogistic conclusions, like the work- 
ing out of a mathematical problem. Peter demanded 


30 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


of his hearers, not learned research, but humble sub- 
mission in penance and baptism. They were to be- 
lieve firmly, on the strength of prophecies, of the gift 
of miracles which they had admired, and of the Res- 
urrection of Christ which Peter and the others had 
witnessed, that the same Jesus, whom they had nailed 
to the cross, was by God constituted the Lord of all 
things, and the Christ or Messiah. They had to be 
converted to save themselves from this perverse gen- 
eration. “They that received Peter’s word were bap- 
tized.” This passage of the Acts clearly insinuates 
human freedom in the acceptance of revelation. The 
grace of God and man’s cooperation are both neces- 
sary for salvation. In presenting the object of faith 
the same facts are presented to all; these facts are 
sufficient to convince any one, but God will not take 
from man his free will; hence some receive the gift of 
faith, while others reject it. The second chapter of 
the Acts closes the narrative of the events on Pente- 
cost day with the remark that about three thousand 
souls were added. Added to what? To the body of 
the Christians, to the Church perfectly constituted 
before the Apostles made their appearance in public. 
The new converts did not form the first community 
of Christians, nor a new one; they simply joined the 
existing Church; no compromise was effected, because 
faith is one and indivisible. The Church offers all it 
received, no more, no less. 


CHAPTER FOURTH 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS 


AFTER the solemn consecration of the Church on 
Pentecost day, and after the discourse of St. Peter 
about three thousand people had been converted. 
Shortly after that, as the Acts (IV) record, more 
joined; the number of the faithful was then fully five 
thousand. Most of these, if not all, were in all prob- 
ability citizens of Jerusalem. Although some of the 
dispersed Jews may have been converted, and become 
active missionaries in their own respective towns and 
villages, we will not now consider them in connection 
with the religious life of the first Christians in Jerusa- 
lem. The converts of St. Peter had probably been 
the most faithful followers of Jewish traditions in the 
Capital. No human consideration or attraction could 
have brought about a conversion, which implied a 
severance of former ties, that might have serious ma- 
terial results. Only those best grounded in biblical 
knowledge and mystically inclined could conceive of 
a Messianic mission in the lowly and religious figure 
of Jesus. These longed after His coming and scrupu- 
lously followed the Mosaic law. There were two va- 
rieties of Pharisees at the time, of which we write— 


the sincere and the hypocrites. Both entertained an 
31 


al THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


exaggerated religious sentiment combined with nar- 
rowness of mind; in some that feeling was sincere, in 
others it was a pretext for villainy. Christ re- 
peatedly cursed the latter variety. Simon who in- 
vited Him to his table, or Nicodemus who came to 
Him secretly do not belong to that class. The first 
Christians were converts from sincere Phariseeism. 
After accepting the teachings of Christianity, they 
still preserved a great respect for the Mosaic law, be- 
cause it was not yet clear that Christianity had re- 
leased them from that yoke. Had not Christ Him- 
self assured His hearers in His sermon on the Mount 
that He had not come to destroy the law but to per- 
fect it? He Himself had been all through life a faith- 
ful observer of it. Such were the views of a powerful 
group in the infant Church. The better part of the 
law, that is, its moral precepts were to remain in 
force and the rest, rather than being suppressed, was 
transformed into something better. Christ had pre- 
pared His Apostles for this transition. As the dim 
twilight prepares our eyes for the bright rays of the 
sun, so does God temper the light of truth to the eye 
of the soul. Not to scandalize His weak contempo- 
raries, Christ had shown Himself full of condescen- 
sion for the observance of the law. Christ had an- 
nounced to the Samaritan woman at the well of 
Sichar that the day was near, when the worship of 
God would not be restricted to the Temple of Jeru- 
salem, as ordered by Moses, but be extended to the 
whole world. Christ had repeatedly told His follow- 
ers that He had come to establish a new kingdom to 


Peete olp ii bee Ob Ohi hi shtTANS: s 933 


be ruled by new laws. The little Church at Jeru- 
salem, while sincerely attached to Christ, still con- 
sidered itself Israelitic. This consideration enables 
us to understand the workings of the Primitive 
Church and the dissensions raised within it. Fealty 
to the Mosaic law manifested itself in the reli- 
gious practices. The center of Mosaic worship was 
the temple, which Jesus had so often honored by His 
presence, and the destruction of which He had pre- 
dicted. The Acts tell us (11.46) that they continued 
daily with one accord in the temple; they were regu- 
lar attendants at the times prescribed by the law. 
We see (III.1) Peter and John going up into the tem- 
ple for their morning prayer. The temple was the 
principal, but not the only, religious meeting place. 
The yearly visit to the temple did no longer satisfy 
the religious zeal of the Jews, especially of those out- 
side of Jerusalem; other meeting places called syna- 
gogues were erected; in these, however, no sacrifices 
were offered; prayer, reading of parts of Scripture and 
comments on these, were the features of the service. 
The Talmud mentions many synagogues even in 
Jerusalem, notwithstanding the proximity of the 
temple. The synagogues were no competitors with 
the temple, which alone remained the center of reli- 
gious worship. Our Lord during His lifetime often 
entered them, and there is no reason to believe that 
the Apostles and the disciples objected to visiting 
them. Many of the practices of Hebrew worship 
were adopted in the Christian liturgy. Externally 
the infant Christian Church might have been looked 


34 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


upon as a Jewish sect, but it was internally animated 
by a new spirit. The symbolism of the new faith, 
accepting Jesus Christ as Redeemer, found its first 
expression in the baptismal rite. Peter had made it 
plain to his hearers on Pentecost day that penance 
and baptism were necessary conditions for admission 
into the Church, of which he was the visible head. 
Penance came first, because without that interior dis- 
position the external rite of baptism would not have 
profited; but penance without baptism, if it could be 
received, was similarly valueless. The baptism of 
Jesus, that is, the baptism instituted by Jesus, was 
something entirely new, not to be limited in its ap- 
plication to the Jews only; Christ had attributed a 
special efficacy to it, and gave us the ritual form of it. 
To the Jews was offered the first opportunity of re- 
ceiving it; Peter had told them so, after showing them 
from Scripture their favored place in the plan of di- 
vine economy. Paul will afterwards tell them so 
(Eph. 11.13). Peter assured the Jews on another 
occasion that the first fruits of the Gospel will be for 
them, but intimated at the same time that they shall 
not have the monopoly of it. 

The memory of Jesus was quite fresh in the minds 
of the neophytes, and, needless to say, His life must 
have been the chief topic of their spiritual conversa- 
tions; for the Apostles it was a duty to explain the 
details of that life. The Apostles were the authentic 
depositaries of dogma, and of the history of Jesus, 
and the faithful were persevering in the doctrine of 
the Apostles (Acts 11.42). The moral code of the 


RELIGIOUS LIFE OF CHRISTIANS = 35 


primitive Church was as plain as its teaching; Jesus 
was the compendium of the new faith; charity was to 
be the distinctive feature of its life; the faithful were 
of one heart and one mind. As the number of be- 
lievers increased, that perfect harmony of minds and 
hearts became more difficult to preserve, but it will 
ever remain the ideal. The primitive Church had an 
individuality all its own, distinguishing it from the 
Synagogue both in faith and practice. The old syna- 
gogue may be absorbed by the new Church, but can 
never be identified with it; there are too many radi- 
cal discrepancies. The new Church accepts Christ 
as Messiah and as God; the synagogue obstinately 
refuses to admit Him as such; God is pictured by the 
Jews as one particularly interested in the material 
welfare of His people; the God-Man of the Christians 
is above all solicitous for the spiritual and eternal 
welfare of His followers. With the Christians God 
is the Father of all; with the Jews nationalism had 
obliterated the universal fatherhood of God. With 
the synagogue religion consisted in a variety of prac- 
tices; for the Christians it is summed up in the one 
great commandment of charity. Grace and truth 
came from Jesus Christ, says St. John (1.17); truth 
through faith, grace through the sacramental system. 

We have already mentioned baptism as the first 
means, whereby the grace of God was obtained, con- 
verts were added to the Church, and their sins for- 
given. The neophytes then received the Holy Ghost, 
as St. Peter had said in his sermon on Pentecost 
(Acts 11.38). Whether in the early days of the 


36 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Church the gift of the Holy Ghost was received in an 
extraordinary way like in the case of the Apostles, 
or in the ordinary way through the imposition of 
hands, is not quite certain. It is, however, certain 
that a little later (VIII) the Holy Ghost came down 
upon the converts of Philip at Samaria through the 
ministry of the Apostles, after prayer and the imposi- 
tion of hands, in the ordinary way through what we 
now call the sacrament of Confirmation. 3 

It is evident that what we now call the Holy Eu- 
charist was the central part of the liturgy in the prim- 
itive Church. The Acts tell us (11.42) that the first 
Christians were persevering in the doctrine of the 
Apostles and in the communication of the breaking 
of bread. A little further on (11.46) we learn 
that the faithful continued breaking bread from house 
to house. In the first of these texts the Holy Eucha- 
rist is meant by the breaking of bread, because 
it is inserted between two strictly religious acts—the 
preaching of the Apostles and the liturgical prayers. 
St. Paul refers to it more explicitly: “And the bread 
we break, is it not the partaking of the Body of the 
Lordr” (1 Cor. X.16). The Syriac version trans- 
lates the passage by the breaking of the Eucharist. 
In the second text the breaking of bread does prob- 
ably not mean the Eucharist; the context seems to 
suggest the ordinary sense. These meetings from 
house to house, or as St. Paul writes later on to Phile- 
mon (1.2) “the Church which is in thy house” are 
the first signs of autonomous Christian life and eman- 


KEGIGIOUS LIFE OFAGHRISTIANS 337 


cipation from Judaism; the temple and the syna- 
gogues are not the only meeting places. The Jewish 
temple did not lend itself to the celebration of this 
new mystic rite, and besides the early Christians zeal- 
ously hid the sacred mysteries from the profane eye. 
We may suppose that from the beginning those who 
had good houses placed them or parts of them at the 
disposal of the Apostles for the celebration of the sa- 
cred liturgy. Frequent Communion was certainly in 
vogue among the first Christians, and in all probabil- 
ity under both appearances of bread and wine, al- 
though this was not essential. Though the breaking 
of the Eucharistic bread only is mentioned, this does 
not necessarily limit Communion to the one appear- 
ance. The Eucharist must always be what it was in 
the beginning—a sacrament and a sacrifice of the new 
law. There may be a development in the ceremonial, 
but the substance must invariably remain the same. 
As the Christians met in the poor houses of Jerusalem 
and later on in the underground catacombs, before the 
splendid churches were erected, they always met at 
the common Eucharistic table, spread for them by 
Jesus Christ. 

The Eucharistic rite has lost in the course of ages 
one of the ceremonies that accompanied its celebra- 
tion in the beginning; we mean the agape or social 
meal. Intense brotherly love inspired the idea, but 
it could and did lead to abuses, as we gather from 
the writings of St. Paul. The spirit of charity was 
the moving force in the Primitive Church; it united 


38 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the faithful; the glorious example attracted the best 
elements among those who had grown tired of strife. 
“The Lord increased daily together such as should be 
saved” (Acts I1.47). 


CHAPTER BIRTH 
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


THE dogmatic, moral, and liturgical code of the 
Church differentiated it from Judaism; it had begun 
its autonomous life, both religious and economic. 
The first Christians constituted truly one family; 
there was not only union of hearts, but also a com- 
mon patrimony. The Acts clearly and repeatedly 
say so. “All things were common unto them, and dis- 
tribution was made to every one, according as he had 
need” (11.32). Scripture tells us that there were 
no needy among them, because the owners of lands 
and houses sold them, and brought the price of the 
things they sold and laid it down before the feet 
of the Apostles. Two occurrences related in the 
Acts, as illustrating the absence of need, are of spe- 
cial interest to understand the economic organization 
of the infant Church. Among the neophytes there 
was a man named Barnabas of the tribe of Levi, a 
Cyprian by birth. He had inherited a piece of land, 
sold it, brought the price and laid it at the feet of 
the Apostles. A question suggests itself. After St. 
Luke stated that this was the ordinary way on the 
part of those neophytes, why does he single out Jo- 


seph, whom the Apostles surnamed Barnabas? It is 
39 


40 THEOPRIMTV Ee GHURGEH 


not likely that he did so for the purpose of upholding 
Barnabas, as an honorable exception to the general 
rule, but on account of the importance of the donor 
in the early history of the Church, and perhaps to 
oppose the faithfulness of Barnabas to the deceit of 
Ananias and Saphira. This leads us to inquire 
whether this communism was obligatory or free on 
the part of all the members. The communism of the 
early Church does not necessarily run parallel with 
the theory advocated by many in the present day. 
The acceptance of that community of property was 
entirely free and voluntary; the custom was local and 
peculiar to the church of Jerusalem. From the let- 
ters of St. Paul we must conclude that it did not ex- 
ist elsewhere. It was a temporary arrangement, even 
for Jerusalem, and it was abrogated as soon as condi- 
tions permitted. The practice, while it lasted, did 
not belong to the essence of a Christian life; it was a 
counsel then as it is to-day to give up everything and 
follow Christ; perhaps in the beginning that counsel 
was more generally followed. 

An occurrence following closely upon Barnabas’ 
generous act furnishes a clearer insight into the eco- 
nomic life of the first Christians. Ananias and 
Saphira had sold a piece of property; and retaining 
part of the price, they brought the balance to the 
Apostles under pretence that the donation repre- 
sented all they had received for their property. They 
tried to associate exterior virtue with a sinful act—a 
lie; but this has never been acceptable to God. Peter 
said to the man: “Why hath Satan tempted thy 


ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION 4] 


heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost, and 
by fraud keep part of the price of the landr’ (Acts 
V.3). Peter does not rebuke Ananias so severely for 
the fact that he had retained part of the price, on the 
contrary, he tells him that he could conscientiously 
have kept it all; but because he had lied to God by 
trying to deceive him, the supreme head of the 
Church. This proves that the communism of the first 
Christians was spontaneous and free on their part. 
This is further borne out by the fact that the Acts 
clearly state (XII.12) that Peter came to the house 
of Mary, the mother of Mark; the house had evi- 
dently not been sold nor deeded over to the Church. 
Any property owner was, after his conversion to 
Christianity, perfectly free to retain or sell his prop- 
erty; no authority could oblige him to do one or the 
other, and no rebuke for either was to be feared. Any 
one selling his property and giving the price to the 
Church acquired the right to being maintained by the 
Church. Ananias and Saphira tried to acquire that 
right without complying with the preliminary condi- 
tions. The cause of this communism in the Church 
of Jerusalem is to be found in the contempt of riches 
on the part of the first Christians. The teaching of 
Jesus had prepared them for that disregard of tem- 
poral wealth; He had called riches thorns that prevent 
expansion of the word of God; He had often warned 
His followers not to worry over food or clothing, but 
He did not dispense them from work; the curse pro- 
nounced upon man in the garden of Eden was not re- 
moved, but work was not to absorb the whole energy 


42 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


of a man created for heaven. Christ with His disci- 
ples held all in common; He apparently attached so 
little importance to money, that He suffered a thief to 
be treasurer. Perhaps also the first Christians were of 
the opinion that the end of the world was near. The 
best motive for this contempt of riches is to be found 
in the real brotherhood that united the first Chris- 
tians; brotherhood then was not a meaningless word. 
True brotherhood finds or makes men equal; it opens 
the purse, sometimes even inconsiderately. The 
above causes led to this unscientific primitive com- 
munism. It was certainly not good financing to 
amass a social capital, without a return, to be con- 
sumed slowly but surely. The system had its im- 
perfections; we have a proof of it in Ananias and 
Saphira; fraud was possible, and there is nothing to 
show that they were all saints. In the sixth chapter 
of the Acts we learn, that complaints were made by 
the Hellenists or Greeks, claiming that their widows 
were being neglected in the daily distribution. Jeru- 
salem harbored then not only Jews born and educated 
in Palestine, and who read the Old Testament in Ara- 
maic, but also Jews born and educated elsewhere and 
who had adopted Greek as their mother tongue; 
they read the sacred books in that language. We 
treat of Jewish converts of both varieties. They were 
indeed all one in faith, but the Palestine Jews con- 
sidered themselves the aristocrats; they were preju- 
diced against the outsiders and were strong in num- 
bers. After their conversion human frailty perdured 
and those who had not grown up under the shadow 


ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION 43 


of the temple were somewhat neglected in the daily 
distribution. The widows especially, were the ob- 
jects of their pious solicitude; the Mosaic law had 
granted them special privileges. A precious heritage 
that could not be neglected in the Christian Church! 
Abuses crept in that might have had serious conse- 
quences; the economic exceptions in favor of the 
Palestine Jews might eventually have developed in 
the religious field. Could the Church sanction such 
dissension? The Apostles were appealed to; they 
settled the dispute at once, reserving for a future oc- 
casion the right to combat Jewish pretensions, as they 
would appear. The blame for the unequal distribu- 
tion naturally fell upon the Apostles, who up to then 
had retained the whole responsibility; all the func- 
tions of the infant Church were in their hands. 
Christ had left the organization of it to them; as 
needs increased, new organisms were called into ex- 
istence; the work was divided. 

A new need presented itself to the Apostles; the 
responsibility of economic administration clashed 
with their apostolic duties, chief of which was preach- 
ing the word of God; it placed unnecessary obstacles 
in the way of efficacious preaching. To offset the 
murmuring of the Hellenists, and to do justice to all, 
the Apostles ordained seven deacons, who had been 
selected by the people so that they might have the 
good will of all. The Apostles, by the imposition of 
their hands upon them, transmitted to them some of 
their powers and the grace of God to enable them to 
discharge their duties properly. The Apostles could 


44 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


then devote all their time to prayer and the ministry 
of the word. Judging from the names of the seven 
deacons we are inclined to believe that the vote was 
favorable to the complainants—the Hellenist portion 
of the flock. The more prominent of the seven were 
Stephen and Philip; we will have occasion to treat of 
these again. Of four others we know little more than 
their names, either from the Acts or from Christian 
tradition. History busied itself considerably con- 
cerning the last-named, Nicolas, a proselyte of An- 
tioch, a Greek of non-Jewish parentage, a convert to 
the Jewish faith first and then to Christianity. Ef- 
forts have been made to connect him with the Nico- 
laites and a Gnostic sect of that name and of unsa- 
vory reputation, but it is not certain and rather 
improbable that a heretic should have been thus 
honored by the Primitive Church. The faithful des- 
ignated the persons, but did not convey an authority, 
which they did not possess; that came directly from 
the Apostles. They were ordained by the Apostles 
for the purpose of serving tables in the daily ad- 
ministrations, but their work was not limited to that. 
They were zealous missionaries in a subordinate posi- 
tion; the Acts clearly tell us so of Stephen and Philip. 
In Scripture they are not called deacons. In another 
chapter we shall treat of deacons and deaconesses in 
the Primitive Church. 

The economic organization, as explained above, 
was peculiar to the Church of Jerusalem; no trace of 
it is to be found anywhere else. In the numerous 
churches, which St. Paul founded, the converts kept 


ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION 45 


their property and disposed of it as they pleased. 
The Apostle of the Gentiles ordered collections to be 
made, as the churches do to-day. The organization 
at Jerusalem apparently had not been a success; the 
patrimony slowly disappeared and great poverty pre- 
vailed. St. Paul had to call upon his converts to 
come to the relief of their brethren in Jerusalem. Yet 
Christian charity will always be the best solution of 
the social economic problem. 


CHAPTER SIXTH 
FIRST PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHURCH 


THE Founder of the Church—Jesus Christ—had 
foretold to His Apostles and their followers what they 
were to expect from the world for their ministry and 
their faith. The disciple was not to be above his 
master nor the servant above his lord (Matt. X.24). 
The world despised, hated, and persecuted Christ; 
His followers would be treated in like manner; they 
would be hated by all for His sake (Matt. X.22). 
The connationals of the Apostles would turn them out 
of their synagogues and scourge them; but they were 
prepared by their Master to meet the attacks, that 
would pour down upon them on all sides. When the 
storm broke they were not surprised, no more than 
an experienced captain on a stormy sea. For the 
Apostles, persecution was a proof of their Master’s 
divinity and His all-wise Providence, causing this 
means of destruction to extend the benefits of the 
Church; the blood of Martyrs will prove to be the 
seed of Christians. Christianity found its first re- 
cruits among the Jews; among them it found, not 
only cold indifference, but also open hostility. The 
Jews tried to smother the new religion in its infancy. 


We will not now examine what effect the opposition 
46 


FIRST PERSECUTIONS OF CHURCH 47 


of the Jews had on the rulers of the Roman empire, 
but limit our remarks to the first persecutions re- 
corded in the Acts. 

A few days after Pentecost, as Peter and John were 
speaking to the people, the priests, the officer of the 
temple, and the Sadducees came upon them. They 
were grieved that the Apostles taught the people, and 
in Jesus preached the resurrection from the dead. 
They laid hands upon them, and held them in dur- 
ance till the next day: for it was now evening (Acts 
IV). Peter and John were guilty of having worked 
an undeniable miracle in the name of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. Immediately upon the spreading of the news, 
a great multitude gathered around the wonderworkers. 
Peter took occasion of it to address the assemblage 
and proclaim the divinity of Jesus Christ, by whose 
power and in whose name the miracle had been per- 
formed. At the time of Christ the Jews were divided 
into two religious factions—the Pharisees and the 
Sadducees. The severe rebukes, which Our Lord on 
various occasions administered to the Pharisees, are 
clear proofs of their bigotry and intolerance. They 
formed an active political party, whose program in- 
cluded hatred and war to the Romans, avoidance of 
all contact with them as far as possible, and their ex- 
pulsion from the country, if the propitious time 
should ever come. There was, however, an opposi- 
tion party—the Sadducees—who prompted by the 
spirit of contradiction took a distinctly different view 
of religion. The Pharisees were fanatics and anxious 
to impress their views upon all others; the Sadducees 


48 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


were indifferent, recruited chiefly among the upper 
strata of society, and preserved exterior respect to 
Mosaic practices, but without any interior spirit. 
The Acts (X XIII.8) tell us that one of the differences 
between the Pharisees and the Sadducees was the 
belief of the former in the resurrection of the dead, 
and in the existenceof Angels and Spirits, which the 
Sadducees rejected. This explains the different treat- 
ment of the two parties at the hands of Our Lord. 
Christ frequently took occasion to chastise the Phar- 
isees, and apparently did not take the same notice of 
the Sadducees; the Pharisees were most likely the 
better of the two. They took a deeper interest in 
religion and were more open to conviction than the 
Sadducees, who looked upon a materially happy life 
as the limit of their desires. The Sadducees did not 
make any efforts at proselytizing; they were a harm- 
less element, with whom Our Lord rarely came into 
contact, while contact with the Pharisees was of 
almost daily occurrence. The bigoted fidelity of the 
Pharisees to Mosaic institutions grievously offended 
the indifference of the Sadducees. We can imagine 
how the religious enthusiasm of the first Christians 
must have been a beam in the eyes of the Sadducees. 
The Sadducees concluded that not only the Phar- 
isees, but also the Christian party were opposed to 
them. They depended largely for their influence 
upon the sacerdotal class. Jesus had threatened to 
dry up that source of revenue and honor, by sub- 
stituting to the Jewish religion and practice, a creed 
of which He was the chief exponent, and that 


FIRST PERSECUTIONS OF CHURCH 49 


promised to do away with the temple and con- 
sequently with the offerings and sacrifices. The Sad- 
ducees, seeing the ground slipping from under their 
feet, took advantage of the hatred of the Pharisee 
and the jealousy of the Roman, to combine with them 
in the death of Jesus. They hoped never to be 
troubled again about the resurrection, which they 
denied. But the crucified and dead Jesus of Naz- 
areth is risen, and begins to speak again and to 
be spoken about. A fact so well proved by hun- 
dreds of living witnesses upsets all their calculations. 
The extraordinary occurrence had aroused deep 
interest among the Jewish people in Jerusalem. On 
Pentecost day three thousand gave up their previous 
views, and joined the small crowd of followers of the 
Nazarene; in a short time the number rose to five 
thousand not counting the women and the children. 
The creed of the Sadducees had received its death- 
blow. A retaliation on their part was to be expected; 
the miracle of Peter and John in favor of a lame man 
was the pretext for it. The Sadducees, the priests, 
and the officers of the temple were in the plot. They 
apprehended the Apostles in the evening, and held 
them over until morning, when they would take them 
before the Sanhedrim. The Apostles were in the 
temple; it was an easy matter to ae tate them ; 
they offered no resistance. 

The Sanhedrim was at that time the supreme reli- 
gious authority among the Jews. It was composed 
of the high-priest, the scribes who were the experts 
of the law, and the ancients who were neither scribes 


50 PHESPRIMUTIVE;GHURGH 


nor priests. Annas is called in the Acts the high- 
priest, not because he was then, but because he 
had been; the position now was held by his son- 
in-law—Caiphas. John and Alexander, of whom we 
know no more, were elected to assist the Sanhedrim. 
The same people, who had condemned Jesus a few 
weeks before, caused-the arrest of the Apostles. They 
were asked with reference to the miracle: By what 
power and in what name have you done this? The 
same question had been put to the Master. The 
Sanhedrim knew perfectly well in what name the 
Apostles had cured the lame man; they wanted their 
confession to implicate them. If the Apostles had 
been questioned two or three months before, they 
might have hesitated; but they are no longer the 
same men; they have been transformed by the Holy 
Ghost and now eagerly seize every opportunity to 
proclaim the praises of Jesus. Peter filled with the 
Holy Ghost again acts as speaker, and proves to 
his judges the divinity of Christ by the miracle. 
However anxious the members of the Sanhedrim were 
to condemn, they could not deny the supernatural 
fact; all Jerusalem knew that it had been performed 
in the name of Jesus. They discuss the question 
among themselves, and conclude that all they could 
do was to impose silence upon the Apostles. The 
Apostles could not submit to such a sentence, and in 
the spirit of true freedom of conscience, they offer 
a question to the judges, which they request them to 
answer; “Is it Just in the sight of God to hear (obey) 
you rather than Godr” It was a question very mod- 


Pits bapeRotbOUPlONSOrR -GHURGH 151 


erate and forceful at the same time; there was no 
escape for the judges. They could not punish them 
for fear of the people, because all men glorified what 
had been done. But the Sanhedrim insisted upon 
its useless threats and sent them away. The same 
answer will be given by all the Apostles and all their 
followers in all future and similar circumstances; we 
must obey God rather than man. If all authority 
comes from God there can be no true authority against 
God. Their conscience compelled the Apostles to 
speak the things, which they had seen and heard. 
The Apostles had been warned and they knew that 
their ministry would not have a peaceful course. 
Judaism in all its forms challenged Christianity, and, 
needless to say, Christianity accepted the challenge; 
prayer will be its first preparation for the fight. The 
first persecution was bloodless; Peter and John after 
their recovery of freedom returned to their brethren. 
They had made a deep impression upon their audi- 
ence; looked upon as uneducated and ignorant they 
argued with great wisdom. The judges could not 
contest their words, nor deny them, and yet they re- 
fused to believe. As an act of faith is prompted by 
the will, they did not believe, because their will was 
wickedly disposed. Upon the return of the two 
Apostles, the Christian community, one in heart and 
mind, lifted their voices to God; they saw in the 
occurrence nothing but an act of God’s kind prov- 
idence, and the fulfilment of a prophecy of the Royal 
Prophet: The Gentiles rage; the people meditate 
vain things; the kings stand up; and the princes 


52 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH | 


assemble against the Lord and His Christ. The 
motive will be the same in all subsequent persecu- 
tions; hatred of the Christian name will cause blood 
to flow in streams and people heaven with martyrs. 
The Apostles and those with them, pray God that in 
the face of all dangers they may with confidence 
speak His word. The place was moved and through 
‘another miracle like that on Pentecost day they 
were strengthened in the faith. A short lull pre- 
ceded the breaking out of another storm more severe 
than the first. The kindness and the supernatural 
power of the Apostles had endeared them to the com- 
mon people; the opposition had to count with them; 
if the old law of retaliation had been kept in force, 
the Pharisees and the Sadducees might not have acted 
against the Apostles with impunity. Many signs and 
wonders continued to be wrought by the Apostles; 
fear of the Jews prevented many admirers from join- 
ing them. The number of believers—men and 
women—steadily increased. Peter was held in such 
esteem that the people thought his shadow could 
deliver the sick from their infirmities. The neigh- 
boring cities brought in their sick to the Apostles, 
who healed them all. Annas, the high-priest and the 
head of the Sadducees, was filled with envy, seeing 
the multitude falling away from his grasp. He and 
his followers laid their hands, not only on Peter and 
John, but on all the Apostles, and put them in the 
common prison, not for examination, but for a 
serious crime. With all the Apostles in prison the 
Church certainly was in distress. Now and in all 


Pika! (PERSEGUTIONS. OF ‘CHURCH: (53 


future persecutions, Christ will show that He is faith- 
ful to His promise, and will abide with the Church to 
the end of time. During the night the Angel of the 
Lord opened the prison doors, and led the prisoners 
out. The Apostles were told, not to hide themselves 
for fear of their captors, but to go to the temple and 
to speak to the people the words of Christian life. 
Early in the morning, the Apostles fearlessly went 
to the temple and taught the assembled multitude. 
Early also the captors of the previous day went to 
the prison, but found the prisoners gone; the door 
was closed and the guards were on duty. Finding 
that they had been eluded, they proceeded to the 
temple and requested the Apostles to follow them to 
the courthouse. No violence was used; they had 
reason to fear that the people would have protected 
the Apostles, and stoned their persecutors. In court 
they were accused of having broken a command of 
the Sanhedrim; although forbidden to preach the 
new religion, they had done so, even in the temple. 
Peter again as the leader, together with the other 
Apostles, renewed a splendid profession of their faith. 
The Jews were cut to the heart, and they thought to 
put them to death. One of the members of the 
council—Gamaliel—a pharisee and a doctor of the 
law as. well as the teacher of the future St. Paul, 
a man respected by all, requested that the accused 
be put forth a little while. More tolerant than the 
others, who were mostly Sadducees, he took the 
defence of the Apostles, whether merely to oppose the 
bloodthirstiness of the Sadducees, or from a feeling 


on THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


of sympathy for men that seemed so sincere in their 
intentions, the Bible does not state. Gamaliel in his 
speech to the Sanhedrists put to them the following 
dilemma: If the work of these men is the work of 
man, it will come to nought; if it is the work of God 
you cannot overthrow it, and if you fight it, you fight 
against God. It required courage to make such a 
plea before a crowd raging with hatred and vengeance. 
The defence of the Apostles is to Gamaliel a title of 
glory in the Christian Church for all times to come. 
He had also to his credit the honor of having been 
the teacher of St. Paul. Whether he ever changed 
his views to conform with those of the converted 
Apostle, neither the Bible nor Tradition states. A 
legend claims that he was baptized by Peter and John 
and that his body reposes in Pisa. The Talmud says 
of him that in his death died the glory of the law. 
The eloquent words of Gamaliel had the desired effect 
to a certain extent; there is no question any more 
of a death sentence, yet the excited passions of 
the Sadducees demanded an escape and they sen- 
tenced the Apostles to be scourged. Each of them 
received 39 strokes; 40 was the legal limit, but people 
used to straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel, 
reduced it to 39. The result must have been unex- 
pected to the Sanhedrim; the prisoners, instead of 
cowering under the humiliation, or quailing under 
the torture, rejoiced and went away happy for 
having been found worthy to suffer those insults 
for the name of their Master. They were again 
warned not to preach the religion of Christ, but 


PInSenehoeOUlIONS OF: CHURCH: 33% 


persecution had, if possible, stimulated their zeal, and 
every day they ceased not in the temple, and from 
house to house to teach and preach Christ Jesus 
(Acts V.42). The Apostles had probably given some 
of their blood in their scourging for the name of Jesus, 
but the honor of being the first to give his life for 
that Holy Name belongs to Stephen, one of the 
newly appointed deacons. Stephen was full of grace 
and fortitude, and did great wonders and signs among 
the people. Some of the synagogue of the Libertines 
attempted to argue with Stephen. It is hard to say 
who these Libertines were; they were probably those, 
who 63 years before Christ had been led captives to 
Rome, and afterwards recovered their liberty, and 
returned to their own country. The Libertines, 
Cyreneans and Alexandrians, Cilicians, and others of 
proconsular Asia were mostly Hellenists; Stephen, 
himself an Hellenist, made many converts among 
them. Stephen’s opponents were not able to resist 
the wisdom and the spirit that spoke. Short on 
arguments they suborned false accusers, who were 
willing to declare that Stephen had spoken blasphemy 
against Moses and against God; they stirred up the 
people against him. Stephen was led before the 
council. The high-priest and the other councillors 
gazed upon Stephen’s face, as if it had been the face of 
an angel. The high-priest opened the proceedings 
and asked the accused: ‘Are these things so?” St. 
Stephen explains to them in a lengthy discourse from 
the Scriptures familiar to them his position in the 
faith, which he proclaimed, and tells them that Juda- 


56 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


ism, as an established religious form, was bound to 
pass away. Stephen concluded his remarks with the 
following words: “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised 
in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost; 
as your fathers did, so do you also. Which of the 
prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And 
they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the 
Just One, of whom you have now been the betrayers 
and murderers” (Acts VII.51-52). Such language 
the Jews never had heard before; the doom of Stephen 
was now sealed. He had before him, not impartial 
judges, but men who were cut to the heart, and who 
gnashed their teeth at him. Taking him out of the 
city they stoned him to death. The first martyr, be- 
fore returning his soul to God, falling on his knees 
prayed, as his Master had prayed on the cross: “Lord, 
lay not this sin to their charge.” Under the leader- 
ship of Gamaliel, devout men, not Christians at that 
time, took charge of Stephen’s body, which remained 
unburied in a field, where it had been thrown to be 
devoured by vultures and wild animals. They took 
charge of the body and made great mourning over 
him. Hardly seven months had passed from his 
ordination to deaconship to his glorious martyrdom. 
Saul was consenting to his death and perhaps owed 
his conversion to St. Stephen’s prayer. 

That same day a great persecution broke out 
against the Christians of Jerusalem. This was the 
first general persecution. Some think that in a short 
time two thousand Christians were killed. Although 
the exact number is unknown, we may conclude from 





FIRST PERSECUTIONS OF CHURCH 57 


the testimony of St. Paul that many were killed: 
“When they were put to death, I brought the sen- 
tence’ (Acts XXVI.10). Many are of the opinion 
that Mary Magdalen, with her sister Martha, and her 
brother Lazarus, together with Maximin, Marcella, 
and Joseph of Arimathea, were put aboard of a small 
craft without sails or oars, to perish at sea, but that 
they eventually landed at Marseilles. Practically all 
other members of the Church, except the Apostles, 
were dispersed through Judea and Samaria. Draw- 
ing good from evil God permitted this dispersion to 
send missionaries of the Christian faith to various 
parts of the world; the exiles went about preaching 
the word of God. Saul was still making havoc of 
the Church; entering in from house to house, and 
dragging away men and women, he committed them 
to prison (Acts VIII.3). 

The Church had now received her baptism of 
blood; her progress will be more remarkable than 
before. 


CHAPTER SEVENTH 
MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS 


AFTER the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of 
Pentecost, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, disappears 
from the inspired writings; she was then at prayer 
with the Apostles, and received the Holy Ghost. We 
can imagine how during her stay in Jerusalem the 
Apostles must have been inspired and encouraged by 
her; she shed a benign influence on the infant Church. 
Mary probably remained in Jerusalem until the 
dispersion of the Apostles. Her adopted son—St. 
John—then took her with him to Ephesus. It is sur- 
prising that so little is known with any degree of 
certainty of Mary’s sojourn in that city of Greece. 
The Acts, although called of the Apostles, are very 
reticent concerning eleven of the twelve Apostles; they 
are chiefly the acts of Peter and Paul. The years of 
their apostolate must have made history, but with 
chapters unknown. Their sole ambition was to ex- 
tend the limits of Christ’s kingdom, and to gain souls 
for Him, so much so that none of them left us a 
record of his own apostolic labors. No wonder that 
the Mother of Jesus shared the same fate. There is 
no doubt, however, that the wishes of her dying Son 


were carried out. She followed the loved and loving 
58 


MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS 59 


disciple in his travels and eventually settled in 
Ephesus. All we know about her life there and her 
death in her native land comes from the early Chris- 
tian writers. They tell us that she was apprised by 
an angel of her approaching death; the day and the 
hour were revealed to her. The fulfilment of God's 
will was at the moment of the Incarnation, and in 
every act of her life, her most earnest wish. We may 
suppose that in keeping with that holy will, she 
sighed after her native land and longed to die in the 
shadow of Calvary. St. John, with whom her wishes 
were at all times commands, made immediate prepara- 
tion for returning to Palestine. After an absence of 
several years, Mary returned to the land of Israel, 
and took shelter in the house sanctified by the 
descent of the Holy Ghost. St. John at once in- 
formed St. James, the first bishop of Jerusalem and 
a cousin of the Blessed Virgin, as also the numerous 
faithful in the Holy City, that the Mother of Jesus 
had come to die among them. All could notice that 
she had escaped the destroying action of time. St. 
Denis, an eye witness of the death of the Blessed 
Virgin, affirms that, at that advanced period of her 
life, she was still strikingly beautiful. It is easier 
to imagine than to describe the death bed scene—the 
grief of the Apostles, the joy of the Mother in the 
speedy reunion with her Son, her blessing to the poor 
orphans, whom she was about to leave. Her soul 
disengaged itself without an effort from its fair and 
virginal covering, and gloriously took its flight to 
heaven. It is generally admitted that the Blessed 


60 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Virgin died during the night preceding the fifteenth 
of August, but the year is uncertain. Some think 
that her death occurred eleven years after the death 
of Christ; others make it the year 48 of our era; 
some give her age at the time of death 61, others 
66 years. “At the death of the Mother of Jesus,” 
says St. Jerome, “all the host of heaven came to 
meet: her, singing hymns and canticles which were 
heard by all present.” 

On the following day the faithful brought in with 
pious profusion the most precious perfumes for the 
burial of their Queen. They embalmed her body 
according to the custom of her people, but the blessed 
remains exhaled a sweeter odor than all the perfumes. 
When the time for burial had come, the Apostles 
carried on their shoulders the litter, in which the 
sacred remains had been placed, to the place of 
sepulture, probably in the valley of Josaphat. The 
faithful followed sadly and reverently. The Apos- 
tles, and especially St. John, felt their loss intensely. 
The sepulchral cave was closed. St. Denis, an eye 
witness, has left us in his “Books of divine names” 
his impressions of the panegyric pronounced by 
Hierotheus on that occasion. In praising the Blessed 
Virgin, the orator was almost beside himself. The 
Apostles had all been warned of the approaching 
death of the Mother of Jesus. All were present at 
her death and funeral, except St. Thomas. For three 
days the Apostles and the faithful kept up the watch 
at the blessed resting place, where they distinctly 


MAKI HE eMOPHER OR BSUS 61 


heard. the sacred concert given by the heavenly 
spirits. Thomas came too late from his distant mis- 
sion to be present at the death and funeral. At his 
request the block of stone was removed from the door 
of the sepulchre; he wished to take a last look at the 
sacred remains and sprinkle them with his tears. 
His request was granted, but the pure body was not 
there; the fresh flowers and the linen shroud was all 
that was left in the sepulchre. After her death 
heaven took body and soul, and glorified them both. 
After nearly 1900 years the followers of the Apostles 
and of the first faithful, believe just as firmly as they 
did, the corporal assumption of the BI. Virgin, 
although it has never been declared a dogma of faith. 
In her liturgy the Church gave from the very begin- 
ning clearly to understand her opinion; there can be 
no doubt about it. 

Tradition, supported by the writings of the Fathers 
and the religious monuments of the time, traces the 
devotion to the Mother of Jesus to the days of the 
Apostles. Peter raised an oratory in her honor in 
one of the ancient cities of Phcenicia; John placed 
a beautiful church at Lydda under the invocation of 
his adopted mother; Barnabas dedicated the first 
church in Milan to Mary. The oratory on Mount 
Carmel was in pre-Christian days erected in honor 
of the Virgin to be the Mother of God. 

As the Synagogue endeavored to smother Chris- 
tianity in its infancy, so it tried to stifle in the bud 
the devotion to the Mother of Jesus, but in vain; the 


62 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Synagogue hated the Son and despised the Mother. 
The Apostles therefore transplanted the veneration of 
Mary to the land of the stranger. 

Great painters have from the beginning placed 
their brush at the service of the one, to whom the 
Greeks have given the beautiful name of Panagia— 
all holy. St. Luke was a painter of merit; he 
presented to the Cathedral at Antioch a portrait of 
the Virgin, painted by himself. This picture, to 
which God had attached signal favors, eventually 
came in possession of the empress at Constantinople. 
This is probably the painting, which the last western 
empress of Constantinople—Catherine of Anjou— 
donated to the sanctuary of Monte Vergine in 
Southern Italy. 

In the time of St. Paul, Corinth had become a 
Christian city; the protecting goddess of the Corin- 
thians was dethroned by the Panagia—the all-holy 
woman of the Christians. 

The Apostles in the West propagated the worship 
of the one true God and the devotion to the Mother 
of Jesus. The meeting places of the first Christians 
were the halls and upper rooms of private houses. 
When these became too small, and as a further pro- 
tection against spies, who then infested the empire, 
the catacombs were transformed into churches. 
Rude frescoes representing Our Saviour and His 
Mother, now half effaced, still proclaim the senti- 
ments of the first Christians towards the Mother of 
Jesus. 

Mary presided at the preparation of the Apostles 


MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS 63 


for the reception of the Holy Ghost; she communi- 
cated to the inspired writers the minute details con- 
cerning the infancy of Jesus; she encouraged the 
Apostles in their work as long as she lived. Favored 
with her Son above all mortals in her Assumption, 
she is now in heaven the mediatrix between God and 
man. Numberless volumes could have been written 
about the work of Christ (John. XX.25) much more 
could have been written about His Mother, but it 
was not necessary; the faith of the Christians knew 
then as now to worship the Son, and to honor the 
Mother. 


CHAPTER EIGHTH 
FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS OUTSIDE OF JERUSALEM 


Tue death of St. Stephen was the signal for a fierce 
persecution against the Church of Jerusalem. Saul 
of Tarsus made himself very conspicuous in that 
movement. The inspired writer of the Acts em- 
phasizes the fact to place his conversion a few 
months later in bolder relief. Some months before 
the Jews appealed to the Romans in their hatred of 
Jesus; they then claimed that they were not allowed 
to kill any one; they had evidently overcome their 
scruples, when they stoned Stephen. 

As the wind is one of the efficacious vehicles 
for the diffusion of germs, so was the wind of 
persecution raging in Jerusalem one of the means 
adopted by Providence for the propagation of 
the Gospel on foreign soil. While the Apostles 
remained in the city, the six remaining deacons very 
likely dispersed together with a great number of the 
faithful. One of them, and after St. Stephen the 
most prominent, crossed the border of Judea into 
Samaria, the province due north of Judea and south 
of Galilee. The chief town of the province had given 
ititsname. The Samaritans were looked upon at that 


time by the orthodox Jews as schismatics. The 
64 


FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS 65 


hatred of the Pharisees was so intense that on a 
journey to Galilee they would make a long detour 
east of the Jordan, rather than follow the straight 
line through Samaria. No wonder that the Samar- 
itan woman should exclaim in surprise to Christ: 
“How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, 
who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not 
communicate with the Samaritans” (Jno. IV.9). 
The friction between them was one of long standing. 
Several centuries before, the Assyrians had sent 
the Jews of Samaria into captivity, and had their 
places taken by people from Babylon, Cutha, Ava, 
Emath and Sepharvaim (4 Kings XVII.24). Those 
of Cutha were the most numerous. These people were 
pagans; they found the country infested by lions and 
concluded that this came as a punishment from the 
God of the place, whose laws they did not know. The 
king of Assyria, to whom they appealed in their dis- 
tress, sent them a pagan priest to instruct them. 
From him eventually they received the Pentateuch, 
but they refused to accept any of the traditions 
of the Pharisees. When the survivors of the two 
southern tribes returned from their Babylonian 
exile, under the leadership of Zorobabel, they began 
at once to rebuild the temple. The Samaritans 
offered their services to this holy cause; but deep 
antipathy caused the Jews to refuse the offer. This 
refusal did not help to bridge over the trouble. 
Later on the marriage of a Jewish high-priest with 
a Samaritan woman, in total disregard of the tradi- 
tional laws, intensified the ill-feeling. Alexander 


66 TAEY PRIVEE VES CHO RG 


the Great permitted him to erect a temple on Mount 
Garizim, that would rival in splendor the temple 
of Jerusalem. The Samaritan woman at the well 
alludes to the fact in addressing Christ; “Our 
fathers adored on this mountain, and you say that at 
Jerusalem is the place, where men must adore’ (Jno. 
IV.20). Christ had limited His ministry during His 
life chiefly to the Jews. “I was not sent but to the 
sheep that are lost of the house of Israel’ (Matt. IV. 
24). Israel was to be favored above all others, but 
St. John tells us of a real preaching of Christ to the 
Samaritans, and St. Luke in the parable of the ten 
lepers mentions the praiseworthy act of one, who 
returned to give thanks, and he was a Samaritan. 
St. Luke also relates the parable of the good Samar- 
itan, who presents a much better figure than the 
Jewish priest or levite. Jesus had told His Apostles: 
“Go ye not in the way of the Gentiles, and into the 
city of the Samaritans enter ye not” (Matt. X.5). 
This command was only a temporary disposition, 
because before leaving the earth Christ said to 
the same Apostles: “You shall be witnesses unto me 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria” 
(Acts 1.8). 

It was natural that Samaria on the borders of 
Judea should receive the good tidings before the Gen- 
tiles. The Samaritans were monotheists, and they 
had accepted the belief in a Messiah (Jno. IV.25). 
They gave proofs of their good dispositions by their 
willingness to receive the word of God, preached to 
them by Philip. Although the Bible does not give 


FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS 67 


us the particular town, that was favored with his 
preaching, we may suppose that he selected one of 
the larger towns, perhaps Samaria; the appearance of 
Simon the Magician on the scene lends color to that 
opinion. Samaria was at that time a beautiful city. 
The Acts assure us that the people were most atten- 
tive to Philip’s preaching; he confirmed his preach- 
ing with numerous miracles; the unclean spirits were 
driven out; many taken with palsy, and that were 
lame, were healed. There was great joy in the 
city; many men and women were baptized. One 
of these converts was Simon the Magician. As a 
magician he had seduced the people of Samaria, giv- 
ing out that he was some great one. His admirers, 
and they were many in all walks of life, said of him: 
This man is the power of God, which is great. After 
his conversion he adhered to Philip, but as a real 
hypocrite. He simulated to believe in order that his 
followers, who had been converted by Philip, would 
not abandon him and also that he might receive power 
to speak various languages, and perform miracles, 
as he saw Philip and those who had been baptized by 
him do. He entered the Church like Judas the 
cenacle; the two of them are models of hypocrisy. 
History repeats itself and we need not wonder if 
there are some with us to-day. The grace of God had 
produced such wonderful results in Samaria, that the 
Apostles in Jerusalem soon heard of it. The Twelve 
had remained there all through the fierce persecution, 
either because they did not wish that flight should 
mean fear, or to comfort those who had remained, 


68 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


even if they had intended to leave the Holy City, 
or because they thought that Jerusalem should be the 
center of missionary effort. Philip in Samaria had 
not the fulness of spiritual powers; the Apostles had 
only communicated part of them to the deacons. 
Philip could preach, convert, and baptize, but the 
Apostles had to come to give to neophytes the Holy 
Ghost, through the imposition of hands. The Apos- 
tles selected Peter and John for that mission, which, 
as we have explained above, does not clash with the 
primacy of Peter. The Acts point out clearly that 
in its administration and its effects the ministry of 
Peter and John was something quite different from 
the baptismal rite, of which Christ Himself had 
ordained the matter and the form. Besides confirm- 
ing the converts of Philip, Peter had to deal with one 
of them in particular—Simon the Magician. Simon 
wanted to buy of Peter the power to give the Holy 
Ghost. Peter answered him: “Keep thy money to 
thyself to perish with thee, because thou hast thought 
that the gift of God may be purchased with money” 
(Acts VIII.20). After this severe rebuke, Simon begs 
Peter’s prayers that the dire calamities with which he 
is threatened may be averted. As we will see after- 
wards from church history, Simon’s request was not 
sincere; the malice of his heart was unchanged. 
Being superstitious he thought the curse upon him 
could only be removed by the one who had called 
it upon his head. Our modern mediums are like 
the magicians of old; part of their magic, now like 
then, is jugglery; part of it may be ascribed to hidden 


FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS 69 


biological and physical forces, and the rest to pre- 
ternatural agencies. The good Samaritans had not 
looked very closely into the magic of Simon; they 
simply called it the power of God. After they had 
confirmed the converts of Philip in Samaria, the 
Apostles returned to Jerusalem, and on their way 
evangelized many villages and hamlets. Philip 
remained in Samaria. 

Shortly afterwards Philip was ordered by an angel 
to go south, and meet the eunuch of the queen of 
Ethiopia. He had gone up to Jerusalem on his 
yearly pilgrimage, and was now on his way home. 
Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet 
Isaiah. Philip joined him and asked whether he 
understood what he was reading. The eunuch 
admitted his inability, and wished to know to whom 
the passage he was reading applied. Philip explained 
the text to his satisfaction, and preached Jesus to 
him; he told him that faith in Jesus was necessary 
to salvation, and that the new life disposing to 
eternal life could only be obtained by means of Bap- 
tism. After due preparation and with the proper 
dispositions on the part of the eunuch, he was bap- 
tized by immersion. This does not prove that im- 
mersion is the only way to administer Baptism. It 
is most unlikely that the Apostles administered Bap- 
tism in this way to three thousand people on Pentecost 
day or in the baptism of children. After baptizing 
the eunuch the Spirit of the Lord took away Philip, 
who was found in Azotus, a place almost due west of 
Jerusalem. Philip then evangelized all the cities 


70 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


between Azotus and Cesarea, to the north-west of 
Jerusalem, and on the Mediterranean Sea, and he 
dwelled in the latter city (Acts XXI.8). 

The eunuch went on his way rejoicing, and we may 
suppose that he became a fervent missionary in his 
own country. The “strangers of Rome,’ who wit- 
nessed the miracle on the day of Pentecost, on their 
return to the Eternal City, prepared the way for the 
Apostles; Lazarus and his exiled companions were 
announcing the good tidings in Southern France. 
Many Roman soldiers in the various provinces of the 
East, and on their assignment to other places very 
probably acted as so many missionaries. The 
inspired historian of the Acts is silent on all these 
points. He does not even tell us when precisely the 
Apostles dispersed to discharge the mission, imposed 
upon them by their divine Master. Most probably 
the dispersion occurred during the year following the 
death of Christ. Cardinal De Lai in his book on the 
Passion of Our Lord proves that Christ died in the 
year 29 of our era, not 33, as is generally believed. 
Before dispersing, the Apostles composed or approved 
what is now called the Apostles’ Creed. Some think 
that each of them contributed one of the twelve 
articles; others claim that it was composed and ap- 
proved by the Apostles collectively. Some think 
that it was composed at the meeting of the 120 per- 
sons (Acts. I.16), others fix the time after the descent 
of the Holy Ghost, others again in the year 44, the 
second year of Claudius. After the conversion of the 
Samaritans and of the eunuch of Ethiopia, we read 


FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS 71 


no more in the inspired history about the work of 
most of the Apostles. James the Lesser is mentioned 
incidentally in connection with the Council of Jeru- 
salem; the Acts have also a few details about the 
martyrdom of James the Greater. The last twenty 
chapters of the Acts relate the apostolic labors of 
Peter and Paul. For any further information about 
the work and death of the eleven Apostles, we depend 
upon the most probable Christian tradition. John 
wrote his Gospel on his return from exile at Patmos, 
where he wrote the Apocalypse. He had the supreme 
honor of caring for the Blessed Mother of Jesus dur- 
ing many years. Under the emperor Domitian he 
was dragged to Rome, and thrown into a caldron of 
boiling oil, but he came out unharmed and more 
vigorous than before. John outlived all the other 
Apostles. James the Greater, after nine or ten years 
of missionary labors in Judea, Samaria, and Spain, 
was the first of the Apostles to die a martyr’s death; 
he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem 
(Acts XII.2). Andrew, according to Eusebius and 
Origen, received Scythia and later Achaia for his 
mission-field; he was crucified at Patras in Greece. 
The priests and deacons of Achaia wrote the acts of 
his martyrdom, but whether they are authentic in the 
shape they have come down to us, is not quite certain. 
Philip preached in Phrygia, and was martyred at 
Hierapolis, being tied to a cross and stoned. Thomas 
preached to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, 
and even penetrated into distant India. Tradition 
has it that on his way out he baptized the Wise 


i THE PRPRIMITIVE*CHURGH 


Men—the Magi. Bartholomew went to Ethiopia and 
Greater Armenia; he suffered the most cruel tortures 
of all; with inhuman ferocity the king had him flayed 
alive and then beheaded. Matthew, after preaching 
the Gospel in Ethiopia, was put to death at the altar, 
pierced with a sword. James the Less was the first 
Bishop of Jerusalem: At the age of 96 he was stoned 
by the Jews and precipitated from the pinnacle of 
the temple. Lying half dead on the ground he begged 
God to forgive his executioners, and finally his head 
was cleft with a fuller’s stick. Simon, surnamed the 
Zealous, worked in Egypt, Cyrene, Lybia, and other 
parts, and suffered martyrdom by being sawed in two. 
Jude, also called Thaddeus, preached in Palestine, 
Idumea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, and died 
a glorious death by being pierced with arrows. 
Matthias worked in Ethiopia; tradition does not 
report what manner of death he died. 

These eleven Apostles all died martyrs, except St. 
John; who underwent the tortures of a martyr, but 
was saved by a miracle. Few of these Apostles had 
a permanent see, like St. James who held the see of 
Jerusalem. Most of the bishoprics they founded 
eventually fell into the hands of heathens, and are 
now only titular sees; they are now given to bishops, 
but they have ceased to be dioceses. 

Of the twelve Apostles two wrote Gospels—Mat- 
thew and John. John also wrote three canonical 
letters and the Apocalypse or Book of Revelations. 
Peter left us two letters, Jude one, and James the 
Less one. Seven of them did not leave usa line. All 


FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS 73 


of them preached the Gospel without having a copy 
of the New Testament, as we have it; because St. 
John wrote his inspired writings after all his co- 
Apostles had gone to their eternal reward. 


CHAPTER NINTH 


CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL AND HIS CALL 
TO THE APOSTOLATE 


Tue Acts, our sure guide in the early history of the 
Church and of Christianity, oppose to the peaceful 
and salutary work of Philip among the Samaritans, 
the hostile efforts of Saul. He was as yet breathing 
out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples 
of the Lord (Acts XI.1). The last time we heard of 
him was in connection with Stephen’s martyrdom. 
On that occasion the witnesses laid down their gar- 
ments at the feet of a young man, whose name was 
Saul (Acts VII.57). Saul now had no stronger desire 
than to kill the followers of the Nazarene. He seems ~ 
to glory in the fact that he was a native of Tarsus, no 
mean city, as he calls it (Acts XXI.39). Indeed it 
was the capital of Cilicia, one of the 35 provinces, of 
which the Roman empire was then composed. An- 
cient pagan writers gave it the preference over Athens 
and Alexandria. This may be exaggerated, but it 
cannot be denied that Tarsus provided great educa- 
tors to the imperial house. Probably Tarsus also 
surpassed in wickedness the other cities of the Greco- 
Roman empire. Strabo tells us that the gates of the 


city carried in Assyrian the following inscription, 
74 


CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 79 


eloquent in its briefness: ‘Eat—drink—and be 
merry—the rest is nothing.” Its wealth perhaps en- 
abled the citizens to put that motto into practice, Saul 
bought at a great price the title of Roman citizenship 
(Acts XX1I1.28). Tarsus was a free town without the 
burdens of a Roman garrison, and was governed by 
its own laws; its citizens were not Roman citizens by 
birth. Saul will revindicate in the future the rights, 
which Roman citizenship conferred. 

Saul was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of 
Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and a Pharisee 
(Phil. I1I.5). In keeping with the Mosaic Law, he 
had been circumcised the eighth day and given the 
name of Saul in memory of their first king. He 
received his primary education in his native city. 
In connection with the synagogue there was a school, 
in which the hope of the future, as all children are, 
received his religious training; he learned to read the 
Scriptures. In his letter to Timothy he alludes to 
the profitableness of reading the Scriptures in infancy 
(2 Tim. III.15-17). Probably he acquired also some 
Greek culture in his native city. The Hebrew youth 
in those days were also taught a trade to provide for 
their subsistence. Saul became a tentmaker. We 
will find him working at his trade, even after he 
became an Apostle, in order not to be a burden to 
others. Saul completed his education in Jerusalem, 
as he himself tells us: “I am a Jew, born at Tarsus 
in Cilicia, but brought up in this city” (Acts XXII. 
3). He had a married sister in Jerusalem (Acts 
X XII1.16) and perhaps he made his home with her. 


76 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


His ambition probably was to be a rabbi, because he 
received his instruction in the law at the feet of 
Camaliel, one of the seven great doctors of the law. 
Gamaliel did more than simply prepare Saul in rab- 
binical dialectics, he insisted upon combining prac- 
tice with theory. His teaching must have corre- 
sponded with the noble aspirations of Saul; he was 
above the little pedantry of the Pharisees. Saul did 
not imbibe the moderation of his master; animated as 
he was with deep intolerance he did not applaud the 
moderation displayed by Gamaliel, when defending 
the Apostles before the Sanhedrim against the Sad- 
ducees. : 

Saul was most probably in Jerusalem during the 
lifetime of Christ. At the time of the martyrdom 
of St. Stephen, Saul is described as a young man 
(Acts VII.57) probably between 20 and 40 years of 
age. He may have seen Jesus; if he did, the sight 
did not make a lasting impression upon him, no more 
than did His passion, death, and resurrection, of 
which he undoubtedly heard. He continued to make 
havoc of the Church, entering in from house to 
house, and dragging away men and women, com- 
mitted them to prison (Acts VIII.3). The field of his 
nefarious work in Jerusalem was too limited, and 
therefore he asked of the High Priest letters to 
Damascus, to the synagogues: that if he found any 
men and women of this way, he might bring them 
bound to Jerusalem (Acts [X.2). His desire was to 
extinguish the Christian religion everywhere. Da- 
mascus was at that time a city of about 50,000 inhab- 


SONVMERSION OFFS Ts PAUL rie 


itants. It had fallen recently into the hands of a 
petty king, named Aretas, a creature of Caligula. 
Aretas was the father-in-law of Herod Agrippa, who 
repudiated his lawful wife, to contract an adulterous 
union with Herodias, the wife of his brother. Aretas 
had left to the Jews their autonomy in Damascus; 
they could regulate themselves according to their own 
laws. This explains why Saul should have asked for 
letters to Damascus; the synagogues there although 
independent of those in Jerusalem, insisted upon such 
letters of introduction. His feelings on the way to 
Damascus are reproduced in some of his epistles; in 
his own words he was then a blasphemer, and a 
persecutor, and contumelious (1 Tim. 1.13). His 
mad rage against innocent victims caused him to dis- 
regard all obstacles, but, as he afterwards confessed, 
it was the effect of ignorance in unbelief. Blinded 
by hatred for the Christian name, he rode along the 
road to Damascus, accompanied by men of the same 
frame of mind. When he drew nigh to the city 
suddenly a light from heaven shone round about him; 
he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him: 
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Saul asked: 
Who art thou, Lord? The mysterious voice an- 
swered: I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is 
hard for thee to kick against the goad” (Acts IX). 

In Scripture we have three accounts of the con- 
version of Saul; one in the words of St. Luke (IX) 
and two in the words of the convert himself, the first 
in a discourse to the people at Jerusalem (XXII), the 
other before king Agrippa (X XVI) with a few extra 


78 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


details, making the whole all the more attractive. 
Saul did not resist the sweet invitation of Jesus; | 
Christ is the head of the Church, by persecuting His 
followers Saul persecuted Jesus. He sought to kill 
Jesus, when Jesus sought him to live. Why should 
he persecute Jesus, his best friend, who had never 
offended him in any way, and who at the same time 
showered His blessings upon him? After that, who 
could ever despair when he contemplates Saul, full of 
hatred and envy, cured in a moment by the heavenly 
physician? The grace of conversion was given him, 
he codperated, and therefore he will be able to say 
afterwards: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” 
Saul had been goaded on by grace; as disregard for 
whip or stick would bring to the plowing ox a more 
severe application of it, so would Saul’s rage and 
hatred have brought dire disaster upon him. He 
justly claims ignorance for his ways; it lessened his 
guilt in the eyes of God, but it was not blameless, 
because he could have easily overcome it. 

Saul, trembling and astonished, said: “Lord, what 
wilt thou have me dor” The question was prompted 
by his own free will; he consented freely to the motion 
of divine grace. He confesses afterwards (X XVI.19) 
that he was not incredulous to the heavenly vision, 
showing that he could have resisted and was not com- 
pelled to submit. The divine answer to his question 
was: “Arise and go into the city, and there it shall 
be told thee what thou must do.” Saul will be called 
directly by Christ to the Apostolate and be instructed 
by Him, but as a preliminary measure God wills that 


CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 79 


men shall be saved through the ministry of others— 
a doctrine, which Paul will often reiterate in his 
epistles. The men in company with him were 
amazed, having indeed heard a voice, but seeing no 
man. Saul arose from the ground, but opening his 
eyes he saw nothing. His companions leading him 
by the hand brought him to Damascus. For three 
days he was blind, and abstained from all food and 
drink. A follower of Christ, by the name of Ananias, 
and on whom great praise is bestowed in the Acts 
(XXI1.12), was ordered in a vision to seek Saul of 
Tarsus in the house of Judas on Strait Street. 
Ananias knew Saul by reputation, and expressed his 
fear for approaching a man, who had come to kill all 
Christ’s followers, if he could. The Lord reassured 
him and told him how Saul was a vessel of election, 
how great he would be as an apostle; furthermore 
he was now praying and changed into a new man. 
Ananias went on his way and found as the Lord had 
told him. Immediately the scales fell from Saul’s 
eyes, he recovered his sight, was baptized, and was 
filled with the Holy Ghost. Ananias was according 
to tradition one of the seventy-two disciples. He 
died a martyr for the faith. 

Saul was no idiot, and the vision was no hallucina- 
tion. He was sure that he had seen Jesus, learned 
many things from Him and was appointed by Him an 
Apostle exactly like the other Twelve. Saul’s con- 
version was under the influence of grace a psycholog- 
ical transformation. The sudden change was caused 
by the vision of the living Jesus; it upset his previous 


380 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


views immediately; the consciousness of it gave him 
all through life a wonderful energy in his varied and 
laborious apostolate. The death of Jesus was the 
great scandal of the Pharisaical Jew; in his eyes a 
man treated like Christ was, could not be the Messiah. 
Saul argued: “Christ was killed, but He is not dead, 
He lives, He appeared to me; the ignominy of the 
cross is transformed into the triumph of the resur- 
rection.” The scales had fallen from his eyes, and 
also from his mind; all his objections were solved; 
the risen Christ is the proof of Christianity. The 
same Saul will afterwards write to the Corinthians: 
“Tf Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching 
vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor. XV.14). 

The space devoted in the inspired Acts to the con- 
version of Saul shows sufficiently that it is a very 
important fact in the history of the Primitive Church, 
not only because he was destined to be the Apostle 
of the Gentiles, but because his conversion is the 
model of all conversions. It means the grace of God 
as an initial step moving both the intellect and the 
will, yet so that man must codperate, and be disposed 
like Saul to do the bidding of God. That grace 1s 
given to all; it enlightens all men, but all do not 
respond. 

Historians do not all agree as to the year of this 
wonderful conversion, whether the year following or 
two years after the death of Christ; the first opinion 
seems the more probable. Most likely the cruel 
persecution of the Christians, following upon the 
death of St. Stephen, encouraged Saul in his nefa- 


CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 81 


rious work, and he at once devised new means of per- 
secuting the Church; the trip to Damascus followed 
shortly after. He is supposed to have been then 34 
years old, and to have spent an equal number of years 
in the apostolate. 

After his conversion Saul remained with the disci- 
ples at Damascus for a few days. During the 
three days of his physical blindness he was instructed 
by Christ Himself, and received infused knowledge 
and understanding of the Scriptures. Immediately 
after that he began to argue with the most learned 
among the Jews and to convince them with his argu- 
ments. All, Jews and Gentiles, and even Christians 
wondered over the sudden change; they could hardly 
believe their ears and their eyes. Was this the 
young man breathing out threatenings and slaughter? 
Saul kept on gaining in strength and confounding 
the Jews. 

Saul did not require a special commission from the 
Apostles in Jerusalem, because he had received the 
necessary power from Christ Himself. 

Scripture does not state how long Saul remained 
in Damascus. When he left the city he proceeded to 
Arabia, probably not to preach, but to prepare himself 
in solitude for the arduous work that awaited him. 
How long his retreat there lasted is unknown to us, 
perhaps three years, because as he himself wrote to 
the Galatians (1.18) after three years he went to Jeru- 
salem via Damascus to see Peter. He did not tarry 
long in Damascus on his return from Arabia. The 
Jews consulted together; they were lying in wait for 


82 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


him; they watched the gates of the city day and 
night with the intention of killing him. The disci- 
ples let him down in a basket over the wall, and he 
started for Jerusalem. His sole purpose was to see 
Peter. Why Peter, and not James, who was then 
Bishop of Jerusalem? He tarried with Peter fifteen 
days. The Christians in the Holy City apparently 
had not heard of Saul’s conversion; they had their 
misgivings about the new arrival; they feared the 
man, whom they knew as a cruel persecutor. Saul 
needed an introduction and a certificate of good 
behavior. Barnabas, the Cyprian born Levite, was 
greatly respected by the Christian community in 
Jerusalem. He was one of the first converts; he had 
sold his land and brought the price of it to the Apos- 
tles (Acts IV.36). He was also intimately ac- 
quainted with Saul, whom he had known from infancy 
and with whom he had frequented the school of 
Gamaliel. We may suppose that Barnabas tried on 
previous occasions to melt the hardened heart of Saul. 
He introduced him to the Apostles and to the Chris- 
tian community. He told them what had happened 
near and at Damascus, how he had been called a ves- 
sel of election and had been appointed an Apostle by 
Christ Himself. Saul was admitted and freely moved 
about among them. .What transpired between Peter 
and Saul, Scripture does not say, but it does state that 
Saul spoke to the Gentiles and disputed with the 
Greeks (Acts 1X.29). We notice here an apparent 
contradiction. It is not likely that the converts from 
Judaism in Jerusalem would have suffered Saul to 


CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 83 


preach to the Gentiles, when they found fault with 
Peter for that reason (XI). Peter was the first to 
receive the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius, by 
command of God. How can we reconcile that with 
the preaching of Saul? Who were these Gentiles and 
Greeks? Perhaps Jews of Greece, born and educated 
among the Gentiles, or Greek speaking Jews; Greek 
was then almost synonymous with Gentile. Perhaps 
Paul argued with them, but did not convert them, or 
these Greeks may have been converts to Judaism, to 
whose conversion to Christianity the brethren could 
not have objected. If really true Gentiles are meant, 
then this event must have taken place after the con- 
version of Cornelius. St. Luke first gives us the 
facts illustrating the beginning of Paul’s aposto- 
late, before he relates Peter’s work among the Gen- 
tiles. 

Peter and Saul now know each other, they will 
meet again and crown their apostolic career with a 
glorious martyrdom on the same day of the same year 
in the same city. During his stay in Jerusalem Saul 
probably argued in the synagogue of the Cilicians, 
who had stoned Stephen and now sought to kill him, 
as a traitor and a deserter. God warned him in a 
vision in the temple to make haste and get quickly 
out of Jerusalem, because they would not receive his 
testimony concerning him (XXII.17-18). Saul fled 
not for fear, the intrepid warrior knew no fear, but 
because God called him to a broader field. He went 
to Cesarea and thence to Tarsus, the capital of 
Cilicia and his native city. 


84 TH EVP RIVED RIVE@ Gr Wit 


After that the Church had a breathing spell; peace 
prevailed throughout all Judea, and Galilee and 
Samaria; and the faithful increased in number and 
merits. 


CHAPTER TENTH 
FIRST MISSIONARY EFFORTS AMONG THE GENTILES 


PETER remained in Jerusalem during the spiritual 
upheaval following upon the death of St. Stephen, 
to protect the Church in the throes of the storm; the 
Holy City was then the mother of all other churches. 
But Christ had committed to him the care of the 
whole flock—sheep and lambs. He availed himself 
of the peace that followed the dreadful storm, to 
visit all the Christian communities, scattered in 
various parts of Palestine. On his tour he came to 
Lydda, not far from the Mediterranean and a day's 
journey from Jerusalem. At Lydda Peter performed 
a miracle on a man who for eight years had been 
suffering from the palsy. The sight of the miracle 
effected the conversion of the greatest number of the 
inhabitants of Lydda and Saron. Saron is the name 
of the great plain along the Mediterranean from 
Joppe in the south to Cesarea in the north; Lydda 
was a town in the plains of Saron. The disciples of 
Joppe, having heard of Peter’s presence in Lydda, 
sent messengers to him with the urgent request for a 
speedy visit to their town. Peter went with them to 
Joppe, the present Jaffa, also on the sea, and now 
the starting point of the up-to-date Jaffe-Jerusalem 

85 


86 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


railway. Joppe is the town from which Jonas started 
to flee from the anger of the Lord (Jon. 1.3). A 
sad sight greeted him on his arrival. One of the 
good women named Tabitha had died; the whole 
community mourned the loss of their best friend. 
Tabitha had been surnamed Dorcas-deer—so prompt 
had she been in all works of mercy. Peter was led 
into an upper chamber; saddened widows awaited 
his arrival and showed him the coats and garments 
which Dorcas had made for them. Tabitha is no 
more; Peter is in presence of the mortal remains. 
After all had been put out of the room, Peter knelt 
down and prayed, and then turning to the body he 
said: “Tabitha, arise!” She opened her eyes and 
sat up; Peter gave her his hand and lifted her up. He 
called in the saints and the widows and presented her 
alive. Many conversions were the result of this 
miracle (Acts ]X.39), 

A more important event in the history of the 
Church occurred at that time, when Peter was stay- 
ing with the tanner at Joppe. Two persons of quite 
different stations in life, the one at Joppe, the other 
at Cesarea—Peter and Cornelius—had a vision; the 
two visions explained each other. The Church so far 
is the church of Jews, not of Gentiles; it was not yet 
entirely emancipated from Judaism. For the proper 
understanding of the two visions we must first con- 
sider the latter in time. Peter had gone up to the 
roof of the tanner’s house to pray; it was about noon 
and he began to feel the pangs of hunger. Whilst 
dinner was being prepared, he was wrapped in ecstasy 


FIRST EFFORTS AMONG GENTILES 87 


(X.9-48). He saw a linen sheet let down by the four 
corners from heaven to the earth. In the concave 
surface of the sheet he saw all kinds of quadrupeds, 
and creeping things, and birds. A voice said to him: 
Arise; (he was probably on his knees in prayer) kill, 
andeat. Peter was horrified; was not disposed to eat 
anything unclean or common. The voice rebuked 
him for calling unclean what God had cleansed. 
This was repeated three times and the sheet disap- 
peared. Peter could not make out what it meant, but 
soon he had an easy key to the enigma. 

Cornelius was a centurion of the Italian band at 
Cesarea; he was not only a Roman, but his name 
seems to indicate that he belonged to one of the prom- 
inent families. The inspired writer of the Acts tells 
us (X.2) that he was a religious man and fearing 
God with all his house, liberal in almsgiving and as- 
siduous in prayer. He had a very clear vision. An 
angel appeared to him and called him by his name. 
Cornelius was seized with fear and whispered: 
“What is it, Lord?” The angel told him that his 
prayers and his alms had ascended for a memorial to 
God, and that he should send messengers to Peter, 
whose address was minutely given, to call him to 
Cesarea; he would tell him what to do. After the 
angel had left, Cornelius called two of his servants 
and one of his soldiers, related his vision, and sent 
them without delay to Joppe. When they drew near 
to the city the next day, Peter had his vision. When 
it had disappeared, the messengers from Cesarea 
stood at the gate, and asked for Simon, who is sur- 


88 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


named Peter. At the same time the Spirit told Peter, 
who was thinking over his vision, that three men 
wished to see him and that he should go with them, 
without any fear because God had sent them. Peter 
went out to meet the messengers, invited them in to 
stay overnight in the house of the tanner. The next 
day accompanied -by some of his Jewish converts 
Peter started for Cesarea. It was a journey of a day 
and a half. Cornelius with his kinsmen and his spe- 
cial friends awaited Peter’s arrival; all of them were 
most likely pagans. Cornelius went out to meet 
Peter, and falling at his feet, adored. Peter objected 
to this mark of veneration. He tells the audience at 
once that his views are no longer those of a real Jew; 
it was not any more to him an abominable act to keep 
company with those of another nation. When Cor- 
nelius had explained his vision, the meaning of Peter’s 
own vision became quite clear to him. In a few 
chosen words Peter prepared Cornelius and those with 
him for their reception into the Church; he told them 
that God is not a respecter of persons. We cannot 
admit that Peter had made a new discovery of some- 
thing unheard of. Christ had commissioned him and 
the other Apostles to preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture, and to teach all nations, but either they had not 
fully understood the command, or they did not well 
know how to go about evangelizing the heathens. 
While Peter was speaking to his pagan audience, the 
Holy Ghost came down upon them and renewed to 
some extent the miracle of Pentecost. The Jewish 
converts from Joppe, who had accompanied Peter to 


FIRST EFFORTS AMONG GENTILES — 89 


Cesarea, were astonished when they saw that the 
grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Gen- 
tiles also. They had received the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost; Peter now commanded that they be 
baptized with water in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and they, like the three thousand on the day of 
Pentecost were added to the Church; no separate 
church was founded for the converted Gentiles. 
Peter’s act in receiving them without circumcision 
meant that the very basis of the Mosaic Law had been 
removed. What was not necessary for converts from 
paganism could not be imposed upon the converts 
from Judaism, because the religion of Christ was the 
same for all, and the necessary means of salvation 
were the same for all. 

Notice of the great event at Cesarea soon spread to 
Jerusalem, and the faithful there were much excited 
over it. After hearing what had happened, they still 
contended that the law was binding on all of Jewish 
descent, and free to the Gentiles. Peter on his re- 
turn to Jerusalem was requested to explain his act; 
his explanation was accepted by all; “they held their 
peace and glorified God” (X1.18). That settled the 
question in so far as the admission of Gentiles into 
the Church was concerned. The abolition of the law 
for the Jews was reserved for a future occasion; the 
Council of Jerusalem will remove all ambiguity about 
that. 

Paul boasted repeatedly of being the Apostle 
of the Gentiles (Gal. II.7) as Peter was of the 
Jews. Peter opened the way to the heathens in the 


90 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


baptism without circumcision of the first converts at 
Cesarea; how can Paul claim as he does? Paul never 
pretended that the conversion of the heathens was 
exclusively entrusted to him; he knew too well that 
the other Apostles had pagan countries assigned to 
their missionary zeal. If Peter was the exclusive 
Apostle of the circumcision, Paul invaded his field, 
because, as we learn from his own epistles, he busied 
himself also with the conversion of the Jews. Paul’s 
boast simply means that his long and laborious apos- 
tolate was chiefly devoted to the Gentiles. There is 
nothing in the epistles of St. Paul to rob Peter of the 
honor of having received the first heathens into the 
Church. In his letter to the Galatians about twenty 
years after his conversion Paul indeed complains of 
opposition to his work. Did that opposition come 
from the Church in Jerusalem?P No; he clearly says 
that it came from false brethren, who, like Simon the 
Magician, had managed to get into the fold. The 
true members of the Church had previously on hear- 
ing of his work, glorified God in him (Gal. 1.24). 


CHAPTER ELEVENTH 
ELUCIDATION OF TWO IMPORTANT POINTS 


OnE of the hardest points to settle concerning the 
early history of the Church is the exact date of the 
important events recorded in the inspired Acts and in 
ecclesiastical history. Cardinal De Lai has rendered 
a great service by proving satisfactorily, in his recent 
book “The Passion of Our Lord,” that our Christian 
era antedates by a few years the birth of the Saviour. 
He proves that Christ died at the age of 33, in the 
year 29 of our era. His conclusive arguments are 
the following: First, Tertullian, St. Augustin, and 
Lactantius affirm without any hesitancy that Jesus 
died during the consulate in Rome of the Gemini 
(Twins). One of the customary methods in vogue 
in the Republic and later in the Roman Empire, and 
adopted by Latin historians, to compute time was to 
indicate the consuls of the year. That these names 
might not be forgotten, they were chiselled on marble 
exposed to public view. In the excavations of the 
Roman Forum were found marble tablets, imbedded 
in the walls of the basilica of Castor and Pollux, and 
of the palace of Numa on the Via Sacra. These tab- 
lets contained the names of the consuls. These con- 


stitute the famous Capitol records. It is at present 
91 | 


o2 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


admitted by all and beyond question that the consu- 
late of the Gemini coincide with the first year 
of the 202 Olympiad, which is precisely the year 29 
of the Christian era. It would be rash to question 
the authority of the above three writers on a date of 
such importance. 

Another proof is the date of Herod’s death. Herod 
died in March three years before the Christian era. 
This is confirmed by many conclusive arguments and 
above all by the great Jewish historian—Josephus 
Flavius. If Herod died three years before the Chris- 
tian era, then it is evident that Christ was born at 
least four years before it, in order to explain Christ’s 
birth, the adoration of the Magi, the presentation in 
the temple, the flight into Egypt, and the slaughter of 
the Innocents. We must then place the birth of 
Christ at least four years before our era, to enable us 
to believe, as the Bible assures us, that He was born 
in the days of King Herod. Up to the sixth century 
the great events were not dated from the birth of 
Christ; each nation had its own method of catalogu- 
ing events. The Hebrews counted their years from 
the creation of the world, or from the Patriarchs, and 
with marked differences, as we gather from the He- 
brew and Samaritan text of the Bible, and from the 
version of the Septuagint. Subsequently the He- 
brews passed under the dominion of the Persians, 
then of the Greeks, and finally of the Romans. 
Among the Greeks the best known date was that of 
the Olympiads, organized in the year 776 before the 
Christian era. Each Olympiad numbered four ordi- 


ELUCIDATION OF TWO POINTS 93 


nary years; all Greece then took part in the great 
games at Olympia. The Greeks had besides their 
fixed dates for great battles, the dates of the Macedons 
and of Alexander the Great. Rome had its dates: 
first of all that of the foundation of Rome, which ac- 
cording to Varro and other authorities must be put 
down in the year 754 before Christ; Cato, Titus 
Livius, and others put it down one or two years 
nearer. Then there were the consular dates, to which 
we have already alluded. Later on came the dates 
of the battles of Actium, of Julius Cesar, of Augus- 
tus, of the martyrs under Diocletian, etc. In all the 
above computations the beginning of a year is most 
uncertain; among the Romans themselves there were 
differences concerning it. 

This explains how exceedingly difficult it is to fix 
with certainty the date of an event in ancient chro- 
nology. 

Dennis the Little in the sixth century introduced 
his system of computing time from the birth of 
Christ. It was a workable system easily adopted for 
common use, but elaborated without sufficient con- 
trol. Dennis made mistakes and no wonder! he had 
not at his disposal during the barbaric invasions of 
his time all the elements, which we now have. Char- 
lemagne carried this system into France, and it slowly 
extended to the whole Christian world without cor- 
rection. Under all the foregoing difficulties a differ- 
ence of only four years is a small matter, but it is well 
to know it. 

The readers of the early history of the Church will 


94 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


realize that it is impossible to give with absolute cer- 
tainty the dates of some great events during the life- 
time of the Apostles in the first century. 

Another very important point in the history of the 
Primitive Church is its hierarchy. Peter was, as we 
have explained in Chapter Second, appointed by 
Christ to be the visible head of the church. Others 
were appointed by Christ to share part of his respon- 
sibility. Christ’s mission was directly entrusted by 
Him to Peter and the other Apostles, but they were 
to have their lawful successors for the conversion of 
the world and its spiritual government. The highest 
authority we have concerning the Primitive Church 
is the inspired Acts. The superficial reader may not 
find in them the different grades of the hierarchy. 

It is of faith however that bishops are superior to 
priests in both order and jurisdiction; it is theologi- 
cally certain that this superiority is of divine right. 
With regard to Order we know from Scripture that 
only bishops ordained priests. The Apostles or- 
dained priests in every church (Acts XIV.22). 
Titus was left in Crete to ordain priests in every city 
(Titus 1.5). Timothy was warned not to impose 
hands lightly on any man (Tim. V.22). Both Titus 
and Timothy were bishops. With regard to jurisdic- 
tion, St. Paul tells us (Tim. V.19) that Timothy had 
power to receive accusations against priests and there- 
fore to examine and punish them; only a superior can 
do this. Many of the early Fathers assure us that in 
a way the bishops may be called the successors of the 


ELUCIDATION OF TWO POINTS 95 


Apostles, and the priests of the seventy-two disciples ; 
the Apostles certainly were above the disciples. 

The authority and excellence of the bishops over 
the priests cannot be argued from the mere difference 
of the names, as they occur in the Acts—episcopus 
(bishop) and presbyter (priest or elder) and the 
corresponding words in the original Greek. The 
word episcopus (bishop) etymologically means “‘in- 
spector” and denotes dignity and authority, but not 
the nature or the grade of it. With pagan writers 
the word meant a civil or military prefect. So does 
Eusebius apply the term to emperor Constantine. In 
the New Testament the term is constantly used to 
express a spiritual inspectorship over all other Orders. 
The word presbyter (priest) etymologically means 
an elder in years, and implicitly a certain authority 
that was often given to old men, but it does not ex- 
press the nature of that authority, whether spiritual 
or not, nor the grade. So does St. Peter use the word 
when he says: “Ye young men be subject to the 
ancients (presbyters)” (I Pet. V.5). So also in the 
gospel of St. Matthew (XV.2): “Why do thy disci- 
ples transgress the tradition of the ancients?’ Here 
again in the Greek text the word presbyter is used to 
denote the elders, doctors of the law and of tradition. 

From time immemorial bishop designates a priest 
of the first order who has power to administer Con- 
firmation and Holy Orders; presbyter a priest of the 
second order, who is subject to a bishop. 

There is this difference between apostles and bish- 


96 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


ops that the apostles had jurisdiction and authority 
everywhere, whereas the bishops had theirs restricted 
to a certain church or territory. The charges of St. 
Paul to Titus and Timothy prove that he had ap- 
pointed them to rule over the priests. In the Apoca- 
lypse (Ch. IT.III) St. John administers a severe re- 
buke to the seven angels or bishops of seven churches. 
It is historically proved that some of them had sev- 
eral priests. In the letters of St. Ignatius, who died 
a martyr in 107, we read the following expressions: 
“Obey your bishop as Christ obeyed His Father, and 
your priests as the Apostles; honor the deacons as the 
law of God, that all may end in the love of God. 
And whereas the bishops take the place of Jesus 
Christ and the priests the place of the Apostles, be 
subject to the bishops as to Jesus Christ, and to the 
priests as to the Apostles; so have the Apostles them- 
selves commanded.” 

If that difference had not existed, how could the 
Fathers of the Church in their controversy with the 
heretics of their time in the second and third centuries 
have left us a list of the bishops of the principal 
churches dating back to the Apostles themselves. 

In the beginning the word “presbyter” applied to 
bishops and priests alike; they were probably all el- 
derly men; hence in several passages of Holy Scrip- 
ture the word variously designates the one or the 
other. St. John calls himself a presbyter (2 Jno. I.J- 
3 Jno. I.1). St Peter calls himself a co-presbyter (1 
Pet. V.1). When St. Paul writes of the imposition of 
the hands of the priesthood (1 Tim. IV.14) he seems 


ELUCIDATION OF TWO POINTS O7 


to indicate the college of bishops and priests, who 
were then in Ephesus. The real question to solve is 
whether the word “bishop” in the New Testament in- 
variably applies to priests of the first order, or also to 
presbyters-priests. Often in Scripture mention is 
made of bishops and deacons; it would seem at first 
sight that, if the presbyters constituted a separate or- 
der, they could not have been overlooked. 

Some think that wherever the word bishop occurs, 
it always applies to a priest of the first order, and that 
such bishop is also presbyter, both on account of age, 
and of the priesthood, which he holds in a more emi- 
nent degree. In his letter to the Philippians (1.1) 
Paul greets the bishops, in the plural; this leads some 
to think that the city of Philippi may have had more 
than one bishop, or that the bishops of neighboring 
cities had met there. They also concede that in the 
beginning of the Church most of the presbyters were 
bishops. 

Others take a contrary view and see in the bishops 
so-called in the New Testament only priests of the 
second order; this view does not do away with the 
distinction between bishops and priests. The name 
of apostle was often applied to priests of the first or- 
der, as in the case of Timothy, Titus, Epaphroditus, 
Barnabas, and perhaps Andronicus and Junias. 

A more common opinion is that the appellation 
“bishop” in the Primitive Church was applied to 
priests of both the first and the second order, but that 
the orders were not the same, and that those of the first 
order excelled the others in power and jurisdiction. 


98 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


The name bishop denotes properly the charge or the 
office, and applied generally to those who presided at 
the meetings of the Christians. In this sense the name 
might be applied promiscuously to priests of the first 
or of the second order. When St. Paul treats of those 
whom the Holy Ghost has placed to rule the Church 
of God (Acts X X.28) he designates priests of the first 
order. When he mentions the ancients of the church 
(XX.17) he includes the priests of both orders. Al- 
though Paul certainly was a bishop, he sometimes 
calls himself a minister (deacon) (1 Cor. I11.5; 2 Cor. 
11.6). 

Scripture demands superior qualifications from the 
bishops and imposes different charges upon both Or- 
ders. 

The bishops ruled a church and had to promote its 
purity in doctrine and morals. Teaching was more 
especially entrusted to them. It was their duty to 
confirm, to ordain, and consecrate the other ministers. 
Priests of the second order presided over the flock 
assigned to them by the bishop; they administered 
the sacraments, except Holy Orders and Confirma- 
tion. 

Mention is also made in the Acts of deacons and 
deaconesses. Deacon or the corresponding Greek 
word diakonos means a server, as in Matthew 
XX.26. More especially the word is applied to a 
server at table. It also signifies a sacred minister, 
who has a religious charge of any order, as when 
St. Paul says: “Let us exhibit ourselves as the min- 
isters [deacons] of God’ (2 Cor. V1.4). In a 


ELUCIDATION OF TWO POINTS 99 


narrower sense it indicates a minister of a particular 
Order, who through an exterior rite is put in charge 
of a religious office. In that sense it applies also to 
deaconesses in the Primitive Church. 

In the strict sense deacons are those, who through 
a sacramental ordination at the hands of a bishop, 
are consecrated for the divine ministry in the church. 
This Order is inferior to that of the priesthood. 
Scripture treats of these deacons in several places. 
They were the men selected in the (Acts 1.6) and 
mentioned by St. Paul in his letter to Timothy (1 
Tim. III.8) where he enumerates the qualities and 
virtues required of them. The chief duties of the 
deacons were to minister at the altar, to baptize, and 
to preach. In the Primitive Church they brought 
Holy communion to the sick, visited the prisoners, 
distributed alms to the poor, etc. The first seven 
deacons, of whom we read in the Acts (VI.1-6) were 
deacons in the strict sense of the word; they were not 
merely for the men what the deaconesses were for 
the women. The deacons received the sacrament of 
Holy Orders. It is of faith that the hierarchy in- 
stituted by Christ consists of Bishops, Priests and at 
least Deacons. The hierarchy of Orders being a di- 
vine institution did exist in the Primitive Church. 
The following arguments prove that the seven dea- 
cons, of whom the Acts treat, were really ordained 
according to Christ’s institution. 1. The Apostles 
imposed their hands with prayer, exactly as in the 
ordination and consecration of priests and bishops. 
2. Among the virtues required of deacons are men- 


100 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


tioned the fulness of the Holy Ghost, wisdom, 
etc.; these certainly were not required for profane 
functions. 3. After their ordination these ministers 
exercised their sacred functions; Stephen preached, 
Philip baptized, etc. 4. Whenever St. Paul writes 
about deacons, he does so always in connection with 
the bishops, and -he demands great perfection and 
holiness in them. 5. Those of the Holy Fathers 
who were nearest to the apostles openly attest that 
the deacons were consecrated ministers; the deacons 
of their days were the successors of those appointed 
by the Apostles. 

The deacons must be considered as sacred ministers, 
although St. Luke does not openly say so. He 
simply points out the occasion, on which the Apostles 
did as Christ had commanded them. The service of 
the table, especially for the widows and the poor, was 
simply the occasion of the institution. It does not 
denote the whole and exclusive charge. 

Somewhat similar to the order of deacons was 
the institution of deaconesses. This was a mere 
lay organization and that is the essential differ- 
ence between the two. The New Testament often 
mentions pious women, who in various ways helped 
the preachers of the Gospel. In the lifetime of 
Our Lord some pious women ministered unto Him 
of their substance (Luke VIII.2-3). Some of 
them followed the Apostles to take care of their 
material wants (1. Cor, -1X.5). Other s¢pious 
women were selected to look after the Christian 
women, and help them in all things appertaining to 


ELUCIDATION OF TWO POINTS _ 101 


religion. In the early ages of Christianity they were 
called deaconesses. Their duties were: 1. To be 
present when bishops or priests administered baptism 
by immersion to women; 2. To instruct privately 
catechumens in Christian doctrine; 3. To visit sick 
women and prisoners of their sex; 4. To act as jani- 
tresses in church, to assign to the women their places, 
and to take charge of the arrangements within for 
the women, as the deacons had it for the men; 5. 
To distribute the alms of the Church to widows and 
poor women. St. Paul gives the qualities required of 
the deaconesses; they had to be chaste, not slander- 
ers, but sober and faithful in all things (1 Tim. 
III.11). The organization of deaconesses had en- 
tirely disappeared in the west before the end of the 
eighth century; it lasted longer in the Oriental 
Church. 


CHAPTER TWELFTH 
THE WRITTEN AND THE UNWRITTEN WORD 


THE Apostles had been appointed the messengers of 
the good tidings to all men in all parts of the world. 
What were the means employed by them for the prop- 
agation of the Christian religion? 

The ordinary and principal means chosen by Christ 
for that purpose was the oral preaching of the Apos- 
tles and their successors. “He gave some Apostles, 
and some Prophets, and some other evangelists and 
other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of 
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edify- 
ing of the body of Christ” (Eph. IV.11-12). To 
these Christ promised the assistance of the Holy 
Ghost in order to make them safe guides in preaching, 
explaining, and defending the whole doctrine of 
Christ. Christ had transmitted orally to them the 
whole deposit of faith. He Himself did not write a 
line, not even for the use of His own Apostles. For 
more than three years He had been their teacher and 
He had promised and indeed sent them the Holy 
Ghost to teach them all truth, and to remind them 
of whatsoever He had taught them. We do not read 
anywhere that He ever ordered His Apostles to write: 


but He often reiterated His command to preach. Be- 
102 


WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN WORD _ 103 


fore the first book of the New Testament was written, 
that is, the Gospel of St. Matthew, Christians were 
counted by the thousands; churches had been founded 
in Palestine and elsewhere, and they flourished. 
These could not have been formed in any other way 
than by the oral teaching of the Apostles and their 
co-laborers in the vineyard of Christ; because the 
written word of the New Testament did not as yet 
exist. When written it was addressed to those, who 
were already instructed in the faith, as is clear from 
the titles of the Acts and of the letters of the Apos- 
tles. Matthew wrote his Gospel about 8 years after 
the Ascension of Christ, Mark 12 and Luke 20; 
John waited to write his Gospel until he was a very 
old man towards the end of the first century. Each 
one of them had a special purpose in view. Matthew 
wrote in Syro-Chaldaic for the special benefit of the 
Palestine Jews, to prove to them that Jesus was the 
promised Messiah, by showing that He was the Son 
of David and that all prophecies had been fulfilled in 
Him. Mark wrote his Gospel in Greek, while he was 
in Rome with Peter. He wrote at the request of the 
converted Romans to leave them a monument of 
Peter’s preaching. Luke, a disciple and companion 
of Paul, wrote his Gospel in Achaia at the request of 
the Apostle. His purpose was to give the history of 
Christ more fully and ordinately for the special bene- 
fit of the converted Gentiles. He had learned what 
he wrote from the Apostles, and from the Blessed 
Virgin all that concerns the infancy and childhood of 
Jesus. John wrote his Gospel in the later years of 


104 THE *PRIMIPIVE:CHURGH 


his life, either on the island of Patmos or at Ephesus. 
He did so at the request of the bishops of Asia for the 
specific purpose of proclaiming the divine and human 
excellence of Jesus, to prove that He was indeed the 
Son of God and refute the errors that were creeping 
in. Inthe Acts, Luke gives us the inspired history of 
the Primitive Church for a period of about 30 years 
after the Ascension of Christ. The 14 epistles of St. 
Paul are addressed to individual churches or persons. 
The 7 universal or canonical epistles (1 of James, 2 
of Peter, 3 of John, 1 of Jude) were addressed to the 
membership at large. The Apocalypse of St. John 
is of all books of Scripture the hardest to understand. 
It is the last of the inspired writings. 

Nowhere do we read of a commandment of Christ 
to His followers to read the Scriptures, but He did 
command them to listen to the preachers of the faith 
and to believe. Faith comes from hearing, says 
St. Paul. On one occasion Christ did say: Search 
the Scriptures (Jno. V.39). but He was then address- 
ing the Jews, who had the Old Testament given 
to them for the purpose of preparing them for the 
coming of the Redeemer. No writing could change 
the import of the apostolic preaching; St. Paul gives 
us the assurance of that: “Though we or an angel 
from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which 
we have preached to you, let him be anathema’ (Gal. 
1.8). Disobedience to the teaching authority, there- 
fore, can never be explained away by an appeal to any 
other authority. 

The religion of Jesus Christ, in whom alone salva- 


WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN WORD _ 105 


tion is to be found, and without whom there is no 
salvation, was established for all people of both sexes, 
of all ages and of every culture, of all times and of all 
places. Of the Christians of the first century many 
were illiterate, none of them could have had a copy 
of the whole inspired word; children and uncultured 
heathens could not have understood it rightly. 

What importance did the Apostles themselves at- 
tach to writing? Did they all consign to writing 
their oral teaching? Was that a part of their Apos- 
tolate? If so, how did seven of them discharge their 
duties, since apparently they did not write a liner 
The Apostles had divided among themselves the then 
known world; each of them made numerous converts 
by his oral teaching alone. They never demanded of 
them the ability to read. Although in the beginning 
of the Church there were defects, as in all things hu- 
man there ever will be, the followers of Christ were 
thorough Christians. They were converted Hebrews 
and Gentiles, who in the midst of the most terrible 
persecutions were always in danger of their lives; they 
- were of one heart and one mind, and as such had the 
distinctive mark of disciples of Christ. The writings 
of the Apostles followed one another up to the end 
of the first century. Most of the Christians of the 
first century probably did not see any of these writ- 
ings, but none saw them all; yet they were thorough 
Christians. The written word of the New Testament 
is only a compendium of the apostolic teaching; we 
cannot admit that it was all; they taught a great deal 
more than is recorded. The Apostles did not even 


106 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


record in writing all that Jesus did (Jno. XX1.25). 
Their teaching, whether written or unwritten, was in- 
fallible truth. If the apostolic writings were abso- 
lutely indispensable to the Christians of the first cen- 
tury, the faith of the Christians in later times must 
have been shocked when some of these writings dis- 
appeared. This seems to have happened. St. Paul 
in each of his two letters to the Corinthians alludes to 
letters, that have probably been lost. It is needless 
to say that the autographs of the Apostles did not last 
long after their death, on account of the troublesome 
times of the persecutions, and also because they were 
written on paper (2 Jno. 12), that is, on papyrus, the 
leaves of a quickly perishing plant. When probably 
the worse for use they were duplicated without the 
aid of a printing press, typewriter or carbon paper. 
These copyists were not guaranteed the assistance of 
the Holy Ghost, and’most of the copies were probably 
defective in the one or other respect. Sometimes they 
added words. We have an illustration of that at the 
end of the Lord’s prayer (Matt. VI.13) to which we 
find the following words attached: For thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. 
Christ did not utter these words, and yet they are at- 
tributed to Him in the English versions of the Inter- 
national Bible Agency. 

The early Christians undoubtedly had the greatest 
respect for the Apostles, but it is not likely that the 
Christians of any particular church long possessed 
the privilege of having them in their midst. They 
must have looked with equal reverence almost upon 


WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN WORD _ 107 


those that had been directly put over them by the 
Apostles; these were holy men who held the affection 
of their flock. They may have written letters that 
were not inspired. How could the first Christians 
distinguish them from the truly inspired word? Dis- 
cussions arose in the very early days, whether some 
of the writings of the one or other apostle were genu- 
ine or not. Neither Christ nor the Apostles had in 
their time the original text of the then existing in- 
spired writings; they had the Greek text of the Septu- 
agint or a translation of this. The only one that 
could have given them an authentic declaration of 
what constituted the written and inspired word of 
God in its entirety, was St. John, the last of the Apos- 
tles to leave the earth. St. John died without leaving 
them that catalogue. 

The Apostles had unquestionably the highest re- 
gard for the written word. They knew it was the 
word of God Himself; they certainly imbued the first 
Christians with the deepest veneration for it. Did 
they consider it as a necessary and easy means for 
their followers to shape their faithr Although they 
lived in times nearer to the inspired authors, and 
amidst the traditions of their surroundings, was it 
easy for them to place the right interpretation upon 
it? Most of them would have answered with the 
Ethiopian: How can I understand unless some man 
show me? (Acts VIII.31.) St. Peter considered it 
his duty to warn his converts and all others concern- 
ing the epistles of his most dear brother Raulseato 
all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in 


108 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


which there are certain things hard to be understood, 
which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do 
also the other scriptures, to their own destruction’’ 
(2 Pet. III.16). We may conclude then that the 
early Christians could not have easy access to the 
written word and that the Apostles did not make the 
reading or study of it an essential condition for ad- 
mission to membership in the Church. 

Christ had commissioned His Apostles to teach all 
nations and to explain to them how to observe all 
things whatsoever He had commanded them (Matt. 
XXVIII.19-20). Christ had undoubtedly handed 
over the whole deposit of faith to the Church. We 
cannot for a moment doubt but that the Apostles were 
faithful dispensers of the ministry entrusted to them. 
They taught whatsoever Christ had commanded them 
for the propagation of His religion, and they did so 
by oral preaching. That same apostolic teaching 
was to be handed down to posterity in its entirety; 
part of it would not make up the whole teaching of 
Christ. Equal stress was therefore laid by the primi- 
tive Christians upon the means employed by the 
Apostles for the purpose. They did, as St. Paul or- 
dered the Thessalonians to do: “Brethren: stand 
fast; and hold the traditions, which you have learned 
whether by word, or by our epistle’” (2 Thes. II.14). 
This shows that the Apostles did not communicate. 
their whole teaching in writing. The primitive Chris- 
tians looked upon the written and oral word of the 
Apostles as of equal importance. As a matter of fact, 
the Christians of the first century had to be almost 


WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN WORD _ 109 


exclusively guided by Tradition, that is, by the word 
of God as passed on by speaking and hearing. If 
Tradition carried less weight than the written word, 
the first Christians would not have been as certain of 
their faith, as we are with both means at our disposal ; 
this conclusion is unquestionably absurd. 

Various means existed from the beginning for the 
safe transmission of the oral as well as for the written 
word. First of all they were directed by the public 
teaching of the living authority of the Church. This 
teaching had not only in its favor an undisputable 
human authority, but was also protected with im- 
munity from error in all things appertaining to faith 
and morals. The articles of faith were presented to 
them in a concise form in the Symbols; such as the 
Symbol of the Apostles, which every adult Christian 
tried to memorize. Next came the liturgy or public 
worship and the public practice of the Church; the 
acts of the Martyrs; the writings of the early Fathers; 
the history of the heresies, always leading up to a 
clearer expression of the faith; a variety of other mon- 
uments, such as, paintings, sculptures, lapidary in- 
scriptions, the tombs of the catacombs, and sacred 
buildings. 

The authenticity and integrity of both the written 
and unwritten word were committed to the same 
authority, therefore both are equally safe means for 
the transmission of the Christian religion. This be- 
ing so, there is no doubt but that divine Providence 
did safeguard the intact transmission of the one like 
of the other. 


CHAPTER THIRTEENTH 


DISPERSION OF THE APOSTLES AND FOUNDING 
OF THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH 


THE Acts do not tell us how many years after the 
Ascension of Christ the Apostles dispersed for the 
mission fields assigned to them. Various opinions, 
more or less founded, have been entertained in the 
past. Some writers at the end of the second century 
and at the beginning of the third spread a so-called 
tradition, according to which Christ had ordered His 
Apostles not to leave Jerusalem before the twelfth 
year after His death. This seems absurd, because 
we know from the Acts that Peter and John went be- 
fore that time to Samaria to confirm the neophytes of 
Philip. The same source informs us also of Peter’s 
pastoral tour to Joppe, Lydda, and other cities of 
Judea; after that he was called to Cesarea to instruct 
Cornelius. A constant tradition has always held that 
Peter first had his see at Antioch, and that he trans- 
ferred it to Rome about the tenth year after Christ’s 
Ascension. Baronius held that the Apostles dis- 
persed after the martyrdom of James, which occurred 
about the tenth year after Christ’s death, that Mat- 
thew wrote his Gospel before that time, that the cause 


of the dispersion was the murder of James, the im- 
110 


DISPERSION OF THE APOSTLES | Il!l 


prisonment of Peter and the threat of Herod to put 
to death all the other Apostles. Some have gone so 
far as to think that the Apostles dispersed after the 
Council of Jerusalem, that is, after the year 47. The 
above opinions seem to be contradicted by more con- 
stant traditions, and by some texts of Scripture and 
by contemporary history. It has been constantly 
held that James the Greater was in Spain, undoubt- 
edly before that date, because he had returned from 
his distant mission to Jerusalem and was martyred 
before then. That would place the dispersion about 
four years after Christ’s death. 

Christ had indeed commanded His Apostles to re- 
main in Jerusalem until they had received the Holy 
Ghost. The order did not imply that they should 
leave immediately after that, yet, it is hard to imagine 
that all of them should have remained for ten long 
years among a perfidious and obstinate people, when 
they knew that the evangelization of the whole world 
had been entrusted to them. Moreover we know 
from the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians (1.19) 
that when he went to Jerusalem three years after his 
conversion, probably four years after Christ’s death, 
he met, in the Holy City, Peter and James only; the 
others must have left before that. 

It seems more probable that the Apostles dispersed 
shortly after the conversion of Cornelius; the barriers 
to the conversion of the heathens had then been re- 
moved by a clear manifestation of God’s will. It is 
evident that as soon as God had manifested His will, 
they obeyed forthwith. 


lle THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


The Acts do not furnish a chronological survey of 
the chief events in the first half of the first century. 
We have before given the arguments of Cardinal De 
Lai in placing the death of Christ in year 29 of our 
era; this is the starting point of the Acts. Events ~ 
followed one another in the following order: 

That same year Peter converted 3000, and soon 
after 2000 more were added to the Church; the seven 
deacons were ordained; at the end of the year Stephen 
was stoned to death. 

Two years later Saul was converted. 

One or two years later, Peter converted Cornelius 
and opened the door of the Church to the Gentiles. 

In 34, or 35 Peter established his see in Antioch; 
James went to Spain and the Apostles dispersed. 

About the same time the famine predicted by Aga- 
bus at Antioch began to spread over the whole Roman 
empire. 

Before 42, James returned from Spain to Jerusalem 
and was martyred by Herod Agrippa. 

In 42, Peter was imprisoned and freed by an angel, 
and transferred his see from Antioch to Rome, where 
he died after an episcopate of 25 years. 

In 47, the Council of Jerusalem was held. 

We cannot vouch with absolute certainty for these 
figures, but they have in their favor the weightiest 
arguments. 

The dispersion of the first Christians from Jeru- 
salem, as a result of the persecution that arose on ac- 
count of Stephen, the proto-martyr, led them as far 
as Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch. Antioch was at 


DISPERSION OF THE APOSTLES 113 


that time the principal town of Syria, and ranked 
third in the whole Roman empire, following upon 
Rome and Alexandria. Antioch was then the seat 
of a Roman pro-consul; it flourished in arts and 
wealth, and counted many Jews among its citizens. 
The Church there was made up not only of converted 
Jews, but also of converts from paganism. St. Luke 
informs us that in this city the followers of Christ 
were first called Christians. As Jerusalem had been 
the center of the Judeo-Christians, so did Antioch be- 
come the center of the pagano-Christians. The early 
history of the Church at Antioch is of special im- 
portance from the fact that it was the See of the visi- 
ble head of the Church, until he transferred it to 
Rome. 

The first Christian refugees in Antioch spoke the 
Word, that is, preached the Gospel to the Jews only, 
but they were soon joined by other refugees from Cy- 
prus and Cyrene, and these began to preach the Lord 
Jesus to the Greeks also. The Greeks here were not 
of those who had embraced Judaism; they were pa- 
gans. The Greeks at that time were masters of elo- 
quence and philosophy; the word Greek then denoted 
not only nationality, but also great minds. St. Paul 
alluded to them as the wise, contrasted with the bar- 
barians, who were the unwise (Rom. [.14). He tells 
us that the Greeks sought after wisdom (1 Cor. 1.22). 

The Lord was with these new missionaries; their 
miracles, in confirmation of the faith which they 
preached with so much wisdom and zeal, converted 
many Gentiles. The good tidings soon came to the 


114 THE’ PRIMITIVE GHURGH 


ears of the two Apostles then in Jerusalem, Peter and 
James. Neither of the two immediately proceeded to 
Antioch, for fear probably of offending the Jews in a 
familiar intercourse with the Gentiles from Cyprus 
and Antioch. In token of their approval of what had 
happened at Antioch, they sent Barnabas in their 
place. He was-a native of Cyprus, and a Greek by 
birth, and therefore by communing with his own 
countrymen he could not give offence to the Jews. 
Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and 
of faith. On his arrival at Antioch he rejoiced at the 
wonders of grace, of which he saw so many living 
proofs before him; he was the man to encourage them 
to perseverance in their calling. He was destined to 
be the companion of Paul. From Antioch he went 
to Tarsus to seek Saul; both then returned to Antioch, 
and spent there a whole year. We have seen before 
that, although Peter was the first to receive the Gen- 
tiles into the church, Paul is rightfully called their 
Apostle; he was privileged to preach the Gospel over 
the whole Greco-Roman empire, and everywhere he 
gathered a rich harvest. The converted Jews did not 
look with particular favor upon him or upon his con- 
verts. Paul took up the defence of his heathen con- 
verts, when the others tried to place unjustifiable 
burdens upon them, or to treat them as inferiors. 
His fourteen epistles are a lasting monument of his © 
love for them. The greater part of the primitive his- 
tory of the Church, as recorded in the inspired Acts, 
is devoted to the work of the great Apostle of the 

Gentiles. 7 


DISPERSION’ OF THE APOSTLES « <115 


For the first four years after Christ, Jerusalem was 
the hub of religious activity, but it could not continue 
to be that. It was too far from the sea, difficult of 
access and eminently Jewish. This latter fact con- 
stituted rather a hindrance, when the Apostles real- 
ized that the stiff-necked Jews, as Stephen had called 
them, were not open to conviction, and that their 
chief efforts would henceforth be among the Gen- 
tiles. Luke gives us the details of the formation of 
a new center, more suitable to the supreme govern- 
ment of the Church than Jerusalem was. Antioch of 
Seleucia was admirably situated for that purpose. 
At the time of which we write it was a city of prob- 
ably more than 500,000 inhabitants. It had gained 
immensely in importance since the Romans made it 
the capital of Syria. Political necessity and pleas- 
ing surroundings attracted people from all sides. 
But there was also another side to the picture; con- 
temporary writers contend that in wickedness it com- 
peted with Corinth, the most infamous of all Greek 
cities. 

The Jews, led by their inborn commercial instinct, 
were soon attracted by the profitable opportunities 
that presented themselves, under the encouragement 
of the Seleucians. Rivaling with the Ptolemies of 
Egypt, the Seleucians strove to gain the favor of the 
Jews. The Jews in Antioch therefore soon enjoyed 
the same privileges, as had been conferred upon them 
by the Alexandrians in Egypt. They could worship 
God in their synagogues, follow their own customs, 
and have their own chiefs not only in all religious, 


116 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


but also in many civil matters; they soon became very 
powerful. After the Romans had conquered Syria, 
they confirmed these privileges, and only sought to 
Romanize them and gain their hearts by a good ad- 
ministration. 

The refugees from Jerusalem after the death of St. 
Stephen had followed the seashore; some had crossed 
over to Cyprus from some point in Pheenicia, the 
others had gone to Antioch. They were too sincere 
in their convictions and in their attachment to the 
religion of Jesus, not to act as missionaries in the 
cities and hamlets which they traversed; they had 
brought about many conversions in Antioch. 

Paul was at Tarsus. What had he done after his 
conversion? He had gone into the desert of Arabia, 
a little south of Damascus, to ponder over God’s great 
mercy in his regard, and prepare himself for the ar- 
duous task of the apostolate. On his return to 
Damascus he began to preach in the Jewish syna- 
gogues. The preaching of their former champion em- 
bittered the Jews; in their eyes he was an apostate. 
How could they oppose a man so learned, so con- 
vinced, and so zealous for the cause of Jesus? The 
only efficacious argument they could think of was to 
do away with him. They at once devised ways and 
means, with the connivance or positive help of King 
Aretas, to seize Paul and kill him. Paul had been an 
interested witness at the martyrdom of Stephen; a 
similar fate must have appealed to the love he bore 
his Master. The Christians in general were of a dif- 
ferent opinion; they seemed to realize how valuable 


DiseerolONOP lik APOSPEES) ily 


his services would be to the cause of Christianity; 
their wish prevailed. Paul was let down in a basket 
over the wall, and so escaped the dark designs of his 
former associates. They led Paul to Cesarea, and 
thence by water to Tarsus. He was at that time un- 
known by face to the churches of Judea, but they had 
heard of him as a persecutor, and also of his subse- 
quent conversion (Gal. [.21-24). | 
Paul was peacefully at work in Tarsus, when Bar- 
nabas who had made his acquaintance in Jerusalem, 
invited him to come to Antioch. The faithful there 
were called Christians, but they continued to call each 
other for quite a while yet—brother, chosen one, dis- 
ciple, believer; not until the second century were they 
familiarly called Christians. Three times only does 
the name “Christian” appear in the New Testament. 
First in Antioch, when they were given the name; 
then when Herod Agrippa jokingly remarked to Paul: 
“In a little thou persuadest me to become a Chris- 
tian” (Acts XXVI.28); and for the last time in 
the first epistle of St. Peter, where he exhorts the 
faithful to bear up with persecution willingly and to 
glorify God in the name of Christian (1V.16). In 
all probability that name was applied to the follow- 
ers of Christ, not by the Jews, but by the heathens. 
It must have been a byword of the Antiochians, when 
they saw that the little party, consisting of a few 
Jews and a few Gentiles, in their eyes both uncul- 
tured and fanatic, proceeded to the conquest of the 
world, when so many stronger parties had failed. 
Barnabas and Paul had made many converts, and 


118 THE PRIMITIVECCHURGH 


a great multitude was added to the Lord (Acts 
X1.24). The gains did not form a new Church, but 
were simply added to the existing Church, like on the 
day of Pentecost. 

The inspired narrative does not connect the name 
of. Peter with the founding of the church at Antioch. 
Yet we know from the most accredited sources that 
Peter was Bishop of Antioch. We find that constant 
tradition corroborated by the testimony of three great 
writers, all prior to the second half of the fifth cen- 
tury. Eusebius the great historian tells us that after 
founding the Church of Antioch, Peter went to Rome, 
where he continued as bishop for 25 years. St. John 
Chrysostom born in Antioch has always been con- 
sidered as the great light of the Eastern church. In 
addressing his fellow-citizens he told them: “This is 
one of the honorable prerogatives of our city that it 
had from the very beginning the Prince of the Apos- 
tlesasteacher. It was indeed proper that that city, re- 
ceiving before all others the name of Christian, should 
have had for pastor the chief of the Apostles. But 
we did not keep him for ever, we gave him over to 
the royal city of Rome.” 

St. Jerome, who died in 420, says: Peter, the Prince 
of the Apostles, after his episcopate in the church of 
Antioch, went to Rome in the second year of Clau- 
dius, and continued there for 25 years up to the end of 
his life in the fourteenth year of Nero. 

It was evidently not the purpose of the sacred 
writer to record all occurrences, however important 
they might seem. There is nothing in the narrative, 


DISVERSION OF THE AROSTLES (7119 


which precludes the founding of that Church by St. 
Peter. We have seen him visiting the dispersed 
Christians, and nothing prevents us from believing 
that he went up to visit the refugees from Jerusalem 
and Cyprus, organized the Church and left Mark in 
charge, when he left. Tradition has it that Peter 
held the see of Antioch for seven years, until he re- 
moved it to Rome, but this does not compel us to 
believe that he resided in these places uninterrupt- 
edly; we know the contrary to be true; his office of 
supreme shepherd frequently demanded his presence 
elsewhere. 

The Church had not only Apostles, but also Proph- 
ets; prophecy was one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. 
Prophets were sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to con- 
firm the flourishing church in the faith by their gift 
of prophecy. One of them, Agabus by name, fore- 
told a great famine over the whole world, which came 
to pass under Claudius. The Holy Ghost willed that 
Christian prophets should foretell this famine, lest 
the heathens should ascribe the cause to Christianity 
and call for the wrath of their pagan gods. Christ 
had foretold persecutions to his followers, lest they 
weakheartedly should take them as occasions to shake 
their faith. Another reason why the Holy Ghost had 
the famine foretold was that the Christians of Antioch 
might send relief to their unfortunate brethren in Ju- 
dea, as actually they did through the hands of Barna- 
bas and Saul. The whole Roman Empire deserved to 
be punished for its crimes, especially for the idolatry 
of Caius Caligula, the emperor who preceded Clau- 


120 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


dius; he insisted upon being adored as god, and not be 
second even to Jupiter, whose image he wished to 
change into his own. He had his statue erected in 
the temple of Jerusalem, and demanded adoration 
even from the Jews. The Jews indeed remonstrated, 
but they also deserved to be punished for their perse- 
cution of Christ and of His Apostles. The fam- 
ine came in the second year of the reign of Claudius; 
the gifts of the Antiochians were sent to the ancients 
—the presbyters, which shows that Jerusalem had its 
priests. 


CHAPTER FOURTEENTH 


DEATH OF ST. JAMES AND IMPRISONMENT 
OFRM@od.5 PETER 


Durinc the famine under Emperor Claudius, King 
Herod started a fresh persecution against the Church 
in Jerusalem. This Herod had been educated in 
Rome, where he had made the acquaintance of 
Claudius. There are four Herods mentioned in the 
New Testament: Herod the Ascalonite, the mur- 
derer of the infants at Bethlehem; Herod Antipas, 
who beheaded St. John and mocked Christ during His 
passion; Herod Agrippa, who murdered St. James 
and imprisoned St. Peter; Herod Agrippa Jr., who 
ruled at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, 
and to whom Josephus dedicated his history of the 
Jewish people. 

The new persecution was not fomented as before 
by the Sanhedrim or by the Jewish people, but by 
the king himself, to whom power over life and death 
had been given by the Romans. His motive was 
not hatred of Christianity or zeal for the law of 
Moses; it was a political move. Soon after the 
martyrdom of St. James, God showed by the deliv- 
erance of Peter and the punishment of Herod, that 
everything is subject to his power, and that He is the 


protector and the avenger of His Church. 
121 


122 THE PREMERIVE GH ORG 


Why was James selected as the victim of Herod’s 
cruelty? The James of whom we now treat is James 
the Greater, the brother of John and one of the three 
specially favored Apostles. He was one of the chief 
pillars of the Church. Most probably he was the 
Apostle of Spain, where he is supposed to have con- 
verted two famous magicians to the faith. It is quite 
likely that the numerous Jews in Spain at that time 
took great offence at his success and induced their 
brethren in Jerusalem to do away with him; James 
was a convincing opponent of Judaism. He was 
murdered shortly before Easter. Herod beheaded 
James, as his grand-uncle had beheaded John the 
Baptist. There are but few instances in the Old 
Testament of the Jews using the sword, but since they 
had fallen under the yoke of the Romans, they had 
adopted this manner of execution. Ancient history 
supplements some interesting details to the inspired 
narrative. St. Clement according to Eusebius wrote 
that his executioner, when leading him to the place 
of execution, was so moved by his bravery in the 
midst of all the indignities heaped upon him, that 
he proclaimed himself a Christian. On the way he 
asked James’ pardon. After a moment’s deliberation 
James told him: Peace be to you, and he embraced 
him; both were beheaded. St. Isidore adds that on 
his way to martyrdom, James restored perfect health 
to a paralytic. He was the first of the Apostles to 
die; his brother John survived all the other Apostles 
and died in the beginning of the second century. 


DEATH OF ST. JAMES 123 


James, as son of Zebedee and Mary Salome, was 
related to Christ. 

Herod had gained his purpose in the murder of 
James; it pleased the Jews, who in the beginning of 
his reign were rather prejudiced against him on ac- 
count of the pagan customs he acquired in Rome. 
The Jews in Jerusalem must have known by that time 
that Peter was the head of what they considered a 
new sect; his capture and extinction would be looked 
upon with still greater favor. King and people most 
probably thought that by putting the leader out of 
the way, they could easily seize the other Apostles, 
and completely uproot the new religion. Herod 
arranged therefore to seize Peter; on account of the 
feast of Easter he imprisoned him, and gave him in 
charge of four files of soldiers, with the intention to 
bring him forth to the people at the end of the seven 
days of the unleavened bread. James was killed 
before the pasch, in order not to sully by his blood 
the festive days. The purpose of bringing Peter be- 

fore the people after Easter meant a sentence of death. 
The Church was not insensible to the treatment 
meted out to its supreme shepherd. The prayers of 
all the faithful went up to heaven on his behalf. The 
united prayer was efficacious; a miracle delivered 
Peter out of the hands of Herod. With the Romans 
four soldiers constituted a guard. During the night 
they were on duty for three hours, when they were 
relieved by four others; four files were therefore re- 
quired for the night watch. God waited to interfere 


124 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


up to the last moment, when Herod was about to 
bring him forth. God was with Peter in his tribula- 
tions, but delayed relief until humanly speaking, the 
case seemed hopeless, to teach Peter and all His 
children to trust in Him, however desperate conditions 
may appear: His will shall prevail, even though a 
miracle is required. | 

All possible precautions had been taken to prevent 
Peter’s escape. “Two soldiers were with him on the 
inside of the prison and two on guard on the outside; 
he was bound with two chains, each of the two soldiers 
holding one; all human possibility of escape had 
vanished. Peter felt so comfortable in his confidence 
in God that he had fallen asleep. All of a sudden 
an angel in human form stood by him; his assumed 
body lighted up the room. The angel struck Peter 
on the side and raised him up and said to him: 
“Arise quickly, gird thyself, and put on thy sandals.” 
The chains immediately fell from his hands. The 
angel added: “Cast thy garment about thee and 
follow me.” Peter obeyed; he was not aware that 
he had an angel as leader: he thought it was a vision. 
They passed through the first and second ward, 
guarded by soldiers, who did not notice the passers- 
by. The iron gate of the city opened of itself to 
them; they passed on through one more street, and 
immediately the angel departed from Peter. 

Peter then came to himself and realized what had 
happened, how the Lord by an angel had delivered 
him out of the hands of Herod, and from all the 
expectation of the Jewish people. At dawn as soon 


DEATH OF ST. JAMES 125 


as the flight was discovered, there was no small stir 
among the soldiers; they wondered what had hap- 
pened to Peter; Herod looked for him in vain. Tak- 
ing revenge upon the guards, he commanded that they 
be put to death for having let his prey escape. He 
thought further to appease his wrath on the Tyrians 
and on the Sidonians, who pleaded for mercy. On 
the day appointed for Herod to hear their case he 
appeared arrayed in royal apparel and made a speech 
to the assembly. In the spirit of flattery his hearers 
told him that his voice was that of a god, not of a 
man. His measure of iniquity was full; the angel 
struck him forthwith, because he had claimed for 
himself the honor that belonged to God. His grand- 
father, Herod the Ascalonite, the murderer of the 
innocent babes at Bethlehem, had been consumed by 
fleas before death; the grand-son was being eaten by 
worms before he died. 

Meanwhile after Peter had come to and the angel 
had departed from him, he came to the house of Mary, 
the mother of John surnamed Mark, who was a com- 
panion to Barnabas and Paul on their mission tours. 
Many of the faithful were gathered in Mary’s house 
and fervently prayed for Peter. Peter knocked on 
the outside gate; a little girl named Rhode came to 
hear who the stranger was. She recognized Peter's 
voice, but she was so overcome with joy that she 
forgot to open the gate, but ran back with the message 
to the assembled faithful. They did not believe her. 
Peter kept on knocking. They finally opened the 
gate and to their great astonishment they saw Peter 


126 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


really and truly. Peter entered and beckoned to 
them to hold their peace and listen. He explained 
how the Lord had delivered him, and requested them 
to carry the news to James and the brethren in Jeru- 
salem. The message to James shows that he was then 
the only Apostle in Jerusalem. 

The inspired writer of the Acts concludes his nar- 
rative of Peter’s deliverance from prison with the fol- 
lowing sentence: “And going out he went into an- 
other place’ (XII.17). Which is that other place? 


St. Luke does not tell us, but nearly all sacred writers: 


of the first few centuries after Christ surmise that the 
goal of his journey was the city of Rome. St. Luke 
probably does not mention the fact because it was 
well known to Theophilus, a citizen of Rome as many 
claim, whom he was addressing in his Acts. Ancient 
writers inform us that Peter passed through Czsarea, 
Sidon, Antioch, Galatia, Cappadocia, and many other 
places, where he confirmed the faithful and appointed 
bishops, until he came to Rome, where he founded 
a church in the house of a senator. 


——— aa 


> he 


CHAPTER FIFTEENTH 
FIRST APOSTOLIC TOUR OF ST. PAUL 


THE importance of Jerusalem as a center of Chris- 
tian activity was soon superseded by Antioch, situated 
far more conveniently, and animated by a much bet- 
ter spirit, in a community which was called before 
all others Christian. Peter in the meantime had 
established his see elsewhere. A new and prominent 
figure now appeared on the scene. That figure is 
Paul of Tarsus, to whose apostolic labors, Luke de- 
votes the rest of his inspired chapters, with the excep- 
tion of one important event—the Council of Jeru- 
salem. Barnabas had invited Paul to Antioch, which 
harbored then prophets and doctors of the New 
Dispensation. Among them were Barnabas, Simon, 
surnamed Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, and Manahen who 
was a foster brother of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul 
(Acts XXIII.1). 

Barnabas and Saul were selected at the inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost for more important work. The in- 
spired writer adds: Then they fasting and praying 
and imposing their hands upon them, sent them away. 
(XIII.3) It would seem that by the imposition of 
hands episcopal consecration is meant. With one ex- 


ception; viz., when Christ is asked to impose His 
127 


128 THES PRIMITIVE CHURGH 


hands on little children (Matt. XIX.13) that rite in 
the New Testament is always used, either to cure or to 
consecrate, as in the ordination of deacons, in the ad- 
ministration of Confirmation, in episcopal consecra- 
tion, etc. Most commentators of Holy Scripture con- 
tend that Barnabas and Saul were consecrated bishops 
by the imposition*of hands. The fact that prayer and 
fasting accompanied and preceded that rite seems to 
confirm that view. In their Apostolate Barnabas and 
Saul certainly acted as bishops, and we do not read 
anywhere else of their consecration. Paul indeed 
wrote to the Galatians (II.6) that the Apostles added 
nothing to him, but this must be understood of the 
doctrine and the gospel, which he learned directly 
from Christ, not from the Apostles. Ananias bap- 
tized him, the Apostles confirmed him and ordained 
him a priest. Christ directly consecrated His Apos- 
tles bishops; they and their successors were to con- 
secrate all others. Who was the Apostle or Bishop 
that consecrated Barnabas and Saul? Not Peter 
who was on his way to Rome, nor James the Greater 
who had been martyred by Herod, nor some of the 
Apostles who were out on distant missions, but 
James the bishop of Jerusalem may have been invited 
or John or Matthias; perhaps some of the prophets or 
doctors in the Church of Antioch may have been 
bishops. 

Paul longed to preach the Gospel in his native Asia 
Minor, Barnabas held out for his native island of 
Cyprus, and won in the holy contest. Being sent by 
the Holy Ghost they first went to Seleucia, the sea- 


FIRST TOUR OF ST. PAUL 129 


port of Antioch, and a very important commercial 
town, whence they could conveniently sail over to 
Cyprus. They landed in Salamina on the east 
coast of the island. They began to preach in the 
synagogues of the Jews, in order not to offend them 
unnecessarily. They had with them John Mark, the 
son of Mary, at whose house Peter knocked after his 
deliverance out of the hands of Herod. John Mark 
was a cousin german of Barnabas, who had and 
showed a special affection for him; this affection was 
so intense that it caused him to prefer his company 
to that of Saul. Whether this Mark of whom we 
read in the Acts and in the letters of St. Paul is 
the same as the Mark of the second gospel, and whom 
St. Peter calls his son, that is, his spiritual disciple 
(I Pet. V.13) is another question, but of little im- 
portance. In order to relieve himself of many cares, 
Saul could have left the economic question in the 
hands of pious women, who helped the other Apostles 
and Peter (1 Cor. [X.15). But he wished to be free 
and not to be a burden to any one; he did not care to 
have any one throw up to him support by others, 
when he himself had been so outspoken, as to say: 
“If any man will not work, neither let him eat” 
(Thes. I1].10). He was far from blaming the other 
Apostles for the practice, which they had adopted; 
for himself he wished to be independent of all, in 
order to be able to tell the truth more forcibly to ~ 
all. We will find him on his journeys preaching the 
Gospel in daytime, and making mats at night. He 
traveled from place to place, generally on foot, and 


130 THEY PRIME VE CHURCH 


lived on the plainest fare. In doing so he exposed 
himself to all sorts of hardships and dangers. Clem- 
ent of Rome attests that Paul fell several times into 
the hands of highway robbers. The sea even had 
dangers of its own. Paul sums up all his trials in 
his second letter to the Corinthians (X1.23-24). In 
addition to the above he had the solicitude of all the 
churches. The worst torture for him was the sting of 
the flesh to buffet him; he was subject to the concu- 
piscence of the flesh, perhaps more violently than or- 
dinary mortals are. However pleasing he was to God, 
and favored by Him, God would not relieve him of 
tribulation; it was to be the battle of a lifetime, but 
cooperation with grace would bring victory. 

In a little over 20 years the zealous Apostle will 
go from city to city, all the way from Syria to Spain. 
Paul and the other Apostles experienced that nu- 
merous and powerful groups of Jews, located in 
various parts were of great advantage to them. 
These had as a rule their own quarters, presided over 
by a religious chief; the ghettoes of the Middle Ages 
and of later times were but another term for them. 
Jewish travelers carried letters of recommendation 
from place to place; the ghetto contributed to the 
diffusion of the Gospel. It is then quite natural that 
Paul’s first sermon in a place should be delivered in 
a synagogue. At these meetings the stranger and the 
guest always had the preference. 

The Acts do not disclose what the results of the 
preaching at Salamina were; we are led to believe that 
the stay of the missionaries at Salamina was short 


FIRST TOUR OF ST. PAUL 131 


and the results insignificant. They crossed the whole 
island; better spiritual consolations awaited them at 
Paphos on the west coast. This place was the home 
of the pro-consul Sergius Paul. He was an intelligent 
man, but he had fallen under the influence of a Jew 
named Barjesu, who called himself an Elymas—a 
magician (XIII.8). Occult sciences had their attrac- 
tion then as they have now; some used them with 
more or less charlatanism in connection with the 
hidden forces of nature; others tried to unveil a world 
entirely unknown. These occult sciences were very 
much in favor in the Orient at that time; the Orient 
had been the cradle of the great religions, and also 
of great superstitions. The best minds were not 
always immune against the common contagion. So 
had Sergius Paul fallen under the fascinating in- 
fluence of Barjesu. God drew good from evil; the 
pro-consul’s curiosity for the unknown led him 
into the arms of Saul and Barnabas, as soon as he 
learned that they were messengers of a new doc- 
trine. The magician tried to paralyze the impres- 
sion made on Sergius; he realized what loss Ser- 
gius’ conversion to Christianity would mean to 
himself; religion for him was but a cloak. Saul filled 
with the Holy Ghost looking upon him said: “O 
full of all guile and of all deceit, child of the devil, 
enemy of all justice, thou ceasest not to pervert the 
right ways (XIII.10). In the name of God, and as a 
punishment he was struck with temporary blindness. 
Sergius Paul had allowed himself to be misled by the 
magician, but in the presence of a real wonderworker 


132 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the scales fell from his eyes and he believed. In 
connection with this wonderful conversion the Acts 
remind us that Saul was also called Paul, and after 
that the name of Paul is always given to the Apostle 
of the Gentiles. Some of the early commentators, 
and among them St. Jerome, were of the opinion that 
Saul on this occasion changed his name into Paul, in 
memory of his first illustrious convert. It is, how- 
ever, more likely that his parents at Tarsus, then part 
of Rome’s dominions, had given him a name, which 
in Hebrew was Saul and with the Romans Paul, to use 
according to his relations with either society. 

Paul had first yielded to Barnabas in the evangeliza- 
tion of his native island, but the roles will be from 
now on inverted; Paul looked for a broader field. 
Henceforth he will not entertain any relation with 
Cyprus; Barnabas alone will return to the island and 
earnestly endeavor to convert it. In the future, not 
Paul will follow Barnabas, but Barnabas Paul as a 
disciple follows his master. 

The missionary band left the island and set sail 
for the western shore of Asia Minor to Pamphilia, 
and going up a river they passed through Perge, a 
city that entertained commercial relations with 
Paphos, and proceeded to Antioch of Pisidia. The 
town should not be confused with the more famous 
Antioch of Seleucia, where the followers of Christ 
were first called Christians. 

Asia Minor was then divided into several small 
regions, not all equally civilized and some of which 
still enjoyed a limited independence, but the Roman 


PIRST TOUR OP'S io PAUL 1 33 


eagles extended their wings over all. The Jews were 
very numerous in these parts, and in that regard 
Asia Minor ranked third, after Egypt and Cyrenaica. 

The Apostles did not tarry long in Perge, which at 
that season of the year was very unhealthy. That is 
perhaps the reason why John Mark departed from 
them and returned to Jerusalem. If this John Mark 
is not the later disciple of St. Peter and the Evan- 
gelist, we may suppose that he found the Apostolate 
demanded more sacrifices than he had anticipated, 
when he accompanied his cousin Barnabas to Cyprus. 
Perhaps he was too much attached to Jewish tradi- 
tions to relish the idea of Paul’s work among the 
Gentiles. His departure grieved Barnabas. Paul 
considered him too light spiritually. 

Paul and Barnabas proceeded to Antioch of Pisidia. 
On the first sabbath day they entered the synagogue 
and sat down. After the reading of the law and of 
the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent word 
to the Apostles to address the congregation, if they 
had any word of exhortation to offer. Paul eagerly 
seized the opportunity, and bespeaking silence with 
his hand, he delivered a long discourse, which we 
find recorded in Chapter XIII of the Acts. This is 
the first recorded speech of St. Paul. As it would be 
childish to assert that every word of Paul is recorded, 
so it would be equally unchristian and erroneous to 
imagine that Paul did not develop the points indicated 
by the author of the Acts. To captivate the benev- 
olence of his hearers Paul began by mentioning some 
of God’s many favors to their race. He had chosen 


134 THE PRIMI BE Chuncr 


their forefathers to be the leaders of his chosen people; 
He was with them, when they were sojourners in 
Egypt, and brought them out of that land of bondage; 
He bore up with their perversity and fed them in the 
desert; He made them conquer their enemies, gave 
them judges and prophets, and kings at their request. 
Paul mentions one in particular, David, the man ac- 
cording to God’s own heart. He then treats of the 
Precursor, John the Baptist. After that introduc- 
tion, he proved that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, and 
insisted that in Christ alone remission of sins and 
justification can be obtained, and not in the Old Law; 
also that faith is an essential condition to salvation. 
The immediate result of Paul’s speech was that at 
the end of the meeting the Apostles were requested 
to address them again on the following sabbath. In 
the meantime Paul and Barnabas requested them to 
be steadfast in their newly acquired convictions. 
During the week the Apostles had occasion to preach 
Christ to the many Gentiles in Antioch. The next 
Sabbath almost the whole town went to hear the 
Apostles; there were many Gentiles in the audience. 
Their presence filled the Jews with envy; they began 
blasphemously to contradict the Apostles. These in 
reply gave them to understand that it was proper for 
them to preach first to the Jews, but as they rejected 
the word of God, they would turn to the Gentiles. 
The Jews had judged themselves unworthy of eternal 
life, their places were taken by the Gentiles. The 
Acts do not state that all the pagans, who had lis- 
tened to Paul, were converted and believed, but only 


Elko lOURTOM EST PAUL 135 


those that were ordained to life everlasting. God’s 
call to the faith is also a call to life eternal, which 
cannot be obtained without faith. Man’s free will 
remains unimpaired through God’s merciful call; as 
all hearers of Christ’s word did not submit to His 
teaching, so not all are converted by the plea of the 
Apostles. 

The Jews, in this instance, resorted to an hitherto 
unknown form of opposition; they stirred up reli- 
gious and honorable women, as also the chief men of 
the city against the Apostles. St. Jerome some 300 
years later tells us that up to his time, women had 
played a conspicuous part as abettors of heresy. To 
mention only one instance, it is well known that 
Simon the Magician had a notorious woman as auxil- 
iary. These women at Antioch were successful in 
raising a storm against Paul and Barnabas; the Jews 
finally cast them out of their coasts. The Apostles 
carried out the injunction of their Master, and shook 
off the dust of their feet against them. This sym- 
bolic act meant that in future they would have noth- 
ing more in common with them; they would leave 
it to God’s vengeance to deal with them. The ejected 
Apostles did not lose courage, nor did their neophytes. 
They were filled with joy in the midst of their tribula- 
tions and with new graces of the Holy Ghost to 
strengthen them in the fight with the opponents of 
their religious convictions. | 

Paul and Barnabas went to Iconium, south-east of 
Antioch. They began their missionary work exactly 
as they had done in other places. Paul preached to 


136 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Jews and Gentiles in the Synagogue; the Gentiles 
were admitted in Antioch. In the temple of Jeru- 
salem, as planned by Herod, there was just outside 
of the wall enclosing the sanctuary, a court of the 
Gentiles. The sacred writer informs us that a very 
great multitude of both Jews and Gentiles were con- 
verted. One of the most illustrious converts was 
Thecla, a fair young lady of a wealthy family. She 
had been betrothed by her mother to a rich and noble 
young man. He was a heathen like herself before she 
embraced Christianity. She had learned from the 
Apostle to value virginity above matrimony, and 
therefore refused to abide by her mother’s decision. 
Her mother and the young man brought her before 
heathen judges; Thecla endured the most horrible 
tortures, but she remained unmoved. All the early 
Fathers sing her praises. Paul here also converted 
Tryphaena and Tryphosa, to whom he sent greetings 
in his letter to the Romans (XVI.12) and whom he 
praised for their great work in the Church in Rome, 
like formerly in Iconium. 

Soon in Iconium persecution broke out in a new 
form. Up to now all hostile acts against the Church 
had been planned and executed exclusively by the 
Jews. This time the unbelieving Jews excited the 
Gentiles against the Apostles. Their argument was 
that the Apostles endeavored to add to the Roman 
collection of gods a new one, and a crucified Jew at 
that. 

‘The Apostles remained for a long time at Iconium; 
probably for two reasons, first, because the very great 


Fikoig TOUR: Obs icy PAUP 137 


multitude of converts demanded their ministry; 
second, because the Jews had incensed the Gentiles 
against them; they remained longer in order to con- 
vert them by their constancy, zeal, and miracles. In 
the Acts Paul and Barnabas are here for the first time 
called Apostles. Barnabas was not an Apostle in the 
strict sense, like Paul and the Twelve, because he 
was not directly called by Christ; he had perhaps 
not seen the risen Christ and therefore was not an 
eye witness of the Resurrection. These two con- 
ditions were required for the Apostolate strictly speak- 
ing; he was therefore an Apostle in the broader sense. 

The people at Iconium were divided in their feel- 
ings towards the Apostles. Their opponents decided 
to use them contumeliously, and to stone them. The 
Apostles who were informed of their intention fled 
south to Lystra and Derbe, and they evangelized the 
whole country around. A miracle at Lystra gained 
the admiration of the people for them. Paul had 
among his hearers a cripple from birth; he looked 
upon him and seeing that he had the faith, which 
Our Lord usually demanded as a preliminary for a 
cure, told him with a loud voice: “Stand upright on 
thy feet.” The man leaped up and walked; a 
miracle had been wrought. The people were so 
excited that they proclaimed aloud in their patois, 
which Paul probably did not understand, that the 
gods had come down in the likeness of men. A proof 
that Paul had not understood them is that he did 
not immediately rebuke them. This is not incon- 
sistent with the gift of languages which he had 


138 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


received. The use of that gift presupposes in the 
minds of speakers and hearers an actual motion of 
the Holy Ghost; this motion was transitory, not ever 
present. 

The people called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul 
Mercury. Barnabas ranked higher in their estima- 
tion, because he was physically superior to Paul. In 
pagan mythology Mercury is Jupiter’s son; he was 
considered the god of eloquence, the companion and 
interpreter of Jupiter. Jupiter had his temple near 
the city; there was a priest attached to it. This 
priest brought out oxen, and garlands to adorn the 
victims, the priest, and the ministers. The victims 
were to be offered at the gate of the city, to enable 
all the people to be present at the sacrifice. When 
Paul and Barnabas had learned their purpose, they 
rent their garments in Jewish fashion to express their 
abhorrence for this blasphemy and sacrilege, and leap- 
ing among the people they addressed them sternly. 
They told them that they were but mortals like all 
of.them, and that it was their special mission to con- 
vert them from these vain things—from their sacri- 
fices to Jupiter and Mercury to the living God, to 
whom alone sacrifice can be offered. The people 
were so enthused that the Apostles could hardly 
restrain them from offering sacrifice to them. It was 
a repetition of Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and 
showed again human fickle-mindedness and un- 
reliableness. 

The jealous Jews of Antioch and Iconium had heard 
in the meantime of the Apostles’ wonderful success 


FIRST TOUR OF ST. PAUL 139 


at Lystra. They sent their men there to tell the 
people that Paul and Barnabas were not the mes- 
sengers of new gods, but of demons, and that they 
would bring the direst calamities upon the city, and 
that therefore they deserved to be stoned. The 
people’s minds were poisoned, and Paul was stoned. 
Paul was singled out, because he had been the spokes- 
man: he suffered in his body the same tortures which 
he had inflicted before on Stephen; but he was Saul 
then, he is Paul now. They dragged what they 
thought a corpse, out of the city to avoid contamina- 
tion. The disciples stood round about the body, to 
bury Paul, if he were dead, or to hide him from the 
fury of the Jews, if he lived. Paul rose, he had been 
cured instantaneously, and he returned to the city. 
The Acts do not furnish any details of what happened 
in the city on Paul’s return. The sacred writer left 
it to the imagination of his readers to reproduce the 
scene—the joy of the neophytes and the confusion 
of the others. 

The next day Paul and Barnabas left for Derbe. 
They preached the Gospel to that city, and taught 
many; no other particular occurrences are mentioned. 
The Apostles then retraced their steps towards 
Antioch, everywhere exhorting their followers to con- 
tinue in the faith. These exhortations show that the 
Apostles did not believe that those who had received 
the faith could not lose it; they made no secret of 
it that but one road leads to the kingdom of God, 
and that is the royal road of the cross. Persecution 
is to be expected by all those, who wish to live 


140 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


piously in Christ Jesus, as St. Paul clearly states in 
his second letter to Timothy (III.12). To continue 
their work the Apostles aftér praying and fasting 
ordained priests for the various churches and bishops 
for the larger cities. As we have explained above 
(Chapter XI) the word presbyter—elder—applies in 
the New Testament to priests of the first and second 
order. 

The Apostles had not visited Attalia on the way 
up, they do so on their return to take the boat for 
Antioch. This concluded the first journey of St. 
Paul. At Antioch they related to the assembled 
faithful the episodes of their journey, and how God 
had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles through 
the grace of the Holy Ghost and the preaching of the 
Apostles. The Acts tell us that they remained no 
small time with the disciples at Antioch, probably 
up to their departure for the Council of Jerusalem. 


CHAPTER SIXTEENTH 
ST. PETER IN ROME 


Tue truth of a historical fact rests upon the evi- 
dence of unimpeachable witnesses. Its truth and 
certainty are not impaired by some connecting 
details that are hard to explain. The coming of St. 
Peter to Rome is one of these historical facts. It 
has in its favor the most convincing proofs, that 
should satisfy the most exacting critic. To deny or 
to doubt it would mean a total ignorance of the 
literature of the Church in the first century. It is 
true that the inspired word of God—the Acts and the 
letters of the Apostles—do not express it in so many 
words. 

The historical purpose of the Acts is to relate the 
founding of the Church among the Jews, the Samar- 
itans, and the Gentiles, but the chief purpose was to 
illustrate the divine origin of the Christian religion 
and of the Church. It would be absurd to look in 
the Acts for a chronological and complete enumera- 
tion of the chief events in the early Church, or of the 
deeds of each Apostle. The writer of the Acts was a 
companion of Paul, at whose request he also wrote 
a Gospel; it is quite natural that Luke should rather 


give a history of Paul, and defend his authority. 
141 


142 THE OP RIM EAG@noRGr 


As the Acts were addressed to the faithful in Rome, it 
was unnecessary to mention an historical fact known 
to all. 

The same applies to the epistles of Paul, and 
especially to the one he addressed to the Romans. 
This letter was probably written in Achaia in the year 
93, after Claudius, in the ninth year of his reign, had 
expelled the Jews from Rome, and Peter with them. 
There was no need of mentioning Peter, when Paul 
knew that he was not there. We gather from Paul’s 
other epistles that he did not send them to the bish- 
ops, and that he did not even send them greetings. 
Paul had his own messengers. He sent his letter to 
the Romans by Phoebe, a deaconess of a church 
near Corinth, and a very prominent woman in her 
own land, who had to undertake a business journey 
to Rome. What more natural but that such a mes- 
senger would first call on Peter, if he had been there, 
and given him all the news about his dear brother 
Paul. 

In the last chapter of the Acts we are told that 
the Jews in Rome wished to have Paul’s views about 
the sect that was being contradicted everywhere 
(XXVIII.22). It might appear that if Peter had 
been there the Jews would not have been so absolutely 
ignorant of the Christian religion. We know from 
Paul himself that before he came to Rome, there was 
a most flourishing community there, the faith of which 
was known all over the world. It is not likely that 
the unconverted Jews were admitted to the meetings 
of the Christians in private houses. It is therefore 


ST. PETER IN ROME 143 


quite possible that they were totally ignorant of what 
they call the sect, and desired information from 
Paul. These and a few more similar passages do 
not prove indeed that Peter was in Rome, but at 
the same time they do not disprove it. 

Is it true that the New Testament is entirely 
reticent about a fact of that importance, concerning 
the chief of the Apostles? We think not. The New 
Testament gives us the first proof of that fact in the 
first epistle of Peter, wherein he says: “The Church 
that is in Babylon, elected together with you, salut- 
eth you, and so does my son Mark” (V.13). Peter 
was then in Babylon. Where was this Babylon? 
Was it Babylon in Egypt, Babylon in Chaldea, or the 
provice of Babylon? The ancient interpreters unan- 
imously took Babylon for pagan Rome, which was 
then the harlot standing on the seven hills. That 
Babylon had been drenched with the blood of the 
martyrs of Jesus (Ap. XVII); this applies to neither 
of the other two Babylons. Pagan Rome was called 
Babylon in the mystic language of the first Christians, 
on account of her idolatry and general corruption. 
No one has ever attempted to prove that Peter went 
as far east as the Euphrates; his presence was not 
particularly required there, because there were but 
few Christians among the Parthians. Many modern 
critics, otherwise hostile to Christianity, like Renan, 
concede that the letter of St. Peter was written in 
Rome. 

We find another allusion to the same fact in the 
letter of St. Paul to the Romans. He says that he 


144 THE PRRIMEIVE CoOURCH 


refrained from going to Rome up to then “lest he 
should build upon another man’s foundation” (Rom. 
XV.20-22). There must have been another founder 
of the Roman Church, and one so conspicuous that 
Paul out of respect for him abstained from visiting 
the capital of the Roman Empire. He must have 
been an Apostle; Christian tradition never attributed 
the foundation of the Roman Church to any other 
but Peter. 

The place of Peter’s death and also the kind of his 
martydom must have been well known to the Chris- 
tians of the first century. Christ had foretold by 
what death Peter should glorify God (Jno. XX1.19). 
A fact so notorious in the days of the Apostles 
maintained its notoriety in the following generation 
and could not have been altered or transformed a 
little while afterwards. If Peter died in Babylon, 
all contemporary Christians would have known it, 
and it was morally impossible that shortly after- 
wards the opinion should have prevailed that Peter 
came to Rome and died there. 

We do not here inquire how long Peter resided in 
Rome, but simply establish the fact that he was there. 
According to constant tradition he was Bishop of 
Rome for 25 years. This, however, does not mean 
that he resided there uninterruptedly. We know that 
when the Jews were expelled, he also was obliged to 
leave, and did not return until that decree of expul- 
sion was rescinded. We must also admit that his 
office of chief shepherd frequently demanded his 


ST. PETER IN ROME 145 


presence elsewhere, while he remained Bishop of 
Rome. 

The weight of evidence is such that few facts of 
history are better corroborated. For the present we 
will give only the proofs of his coming to Rome and 
of his residence there. None of the ancients ever 
contended that Peter went to Rome before he had 
been cast into prison by Herod Agrippa about the 
feast of Easter in 42. Josephus tells us that when 
Claudius came to the throne in January 41, he ap- 
pointed Herod king of the whole of Palestine. In 
the following year Peter was delivered out of his 
dungeon, left Palestine and went into another place 
(Acts XII.17). This other place was Rome. Herod 
died in 43. Peter must have gone to Rome the 
previous year, because, according to the very oldest 
documents, like the Chronicon of Eusebius and the 
writings of St. Jerome, Mark who acted as Peter’s 
secretary or interpreter, left Rome for Alexandria 
in the third year of Claudius, after he had written his 
Gospel in Rome. 

Horace Marucchi, one of the greatest archeologists 
of our times, sees in a letter of St. Clement to the 
Corinthians the most ancient document proving the 
martyrdom of St. Peter in Rome. Clement was 
bishop of Rome from 90 to 100; Hegesippus, Irenzeus, 
and Eusebius all speak of that letter, the text of which 
had been lost for a long time. It was recovered in 
London and printed in 1633. In that precious docu- 
ment, written in 96 or 97, mention is made of the 


146 THE PRIMITIVES GHURGH 


two Apostles—Peter and Paul. Clement wrote from 
Rome and in the name of the Church of Rome. The 
mention of the two names along with other illus- 
trious persons “‘amongst us,” as Clement expressed it, 
is of the highest importance, and is an allusion to 
the then well known fact of Peter’s coming into the 
capital of the Czsars. 

A few years later under the reign of Trajan, Igna- 
tius, bishop of Antioch and condemned to die in the 
Roman ampitheater, wrote his famous letter to the 
Romans. In it he begs of them not to intercede to 
save his life and he adds: I do not command it like 
Peter and Paul; they were Apostles, I am but a slave. 
Here again there is no explicit proof of the coming of 
St. Peter to Rome, but his mention together with St. 
Paul is an evident allusion to that fact, not a mere 
insinuation of it. Insinuation may be made of a fact 
not well known; to a fact universally known allu- 
sion is made. 

After these indirect proofs come the more numerous 
and positive proofs, from the second century onward. 

Irenzus was a disciple of Polycarp, who himself 
had been a disciple of St. John. He knew the 
churches of Asia, and as bishop in Gaul he often had 
occasion to visit Rome on important business. 
Polycarp had known the Apostles and especially St. 
John; he had lived with John and others who had 
seen Christ. He must have learned from St. John, 
not only the manner of Peter’s martyrdom, but also 
the place. He recorded the manner in his Gospel 
several years after Peter’s death. John survived 


ST. PETER IN ROME 147 


Peter for more than 30 years. Who will deny that 
John knew and communicated to Polycarp the 
place? Could Ireneus have had a more unmistak- 
able source of information for what he wroteP In 
his book “Against Heresies” Irenzeus says: As it 
would be too long to enumerate in this my book, the 
succession of pastors in all the churches, we will in- 
dicate that succession for the Church of Rome, 
founded and organized by the too glorious Apostles— 
Peter and Paul. By the succession of its bishops we 
confound all who differ from us. In that church the 
faithful of all places can learn the apostolic tradition. 
After having founded and instructed that church, the 
two Apostles gave over the administration of it to 
Linus. Anaclet succeeded Linus; Clement was the 
third from the Apostles to obtain that episco- 
pate... . Now (at the time of Irenzus’ writing ) 
the twelfth from the Apostles to be Bishop of Rome 
was Eleutherius. He as successor of Peter ruled the 
Church of Rome for 15 years and died in 193. 

St. Denis of Corinth, who preceded Irenzus by a 
few years, was a great man in his day and died in 
170. He wrote to the Romans: “Both Apostles in- 
structed us in Corinth, together they left for Italy, 
and after preaching the faith endured martyrdom at 
the same time.” 

Origen for Alexandria and Tertullian for Africa 
attest explicitly that Peter founded the Church of 
Rome. Finally Eusebius, the historian of the time 
of Constantine, affirms the same in various parts of 
his history. 


148 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Besides the many historical proofs, direct and in- 
direct, there is another argument of the highest 1m- 
portance. It is the fact that none of the early Chris- 
tian Churches ever protested the claims of the Roman 
Church; that Church has always claimed to have 
been founded by Peter and to possess his grave. If 
Peter did not die in Rome he must have died some- 
where else. Wherever that happened, his grave 
would have been looked upon as a sanctuary, and 
the city that possessed his remains would have gloried 
in the fact. But from the very beginning Rome 
alone claimed Peter’s tomb; no other city ever dis- 
puted that claim. Both the Eastern and the Western 
Church have accepted the fact. 


CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH 
THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM 


Tue Gospel had been preached throughout the 
greater part of Asia Minor; the evangelical seed had 
sprouted everywhere, but it had produced an espe- 
cially rich harvest in the capital of Syria—Antioch. 
The inspired writer does not tell us how many adher- 
ents the Church counted about 17 years after the As- 
cension of Christ. If we add to the results obtained 
by Peter, Paul, Barnabas, the deacon Philip, whose 
work is mentioned in the Acts, the harvest of souls 
brought into the fold by the other eleven Apostles in 
various parts of the world, of which no mention is 
made, we can readily imagine that there must have 
been many thousands, all converts from Judaism or 
paganism. As long as the converts represented only 
one race—the Jews—they were all of one heart and 
of one mind. With the entrance of the Gentiles dif- 
ferences of opinion arose, but not with the teaching 
authority. We have seen Peter and Paul acting in 
the same way towards them; and the other Apostles 
sent to pagan countries received their converts with- 
out subjecting them to any Jewish rites. | 

Some of the Jewish converts in Judea clung to the 


idea that the rite of circumcision was a necessary con- 
149 


150 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


dition to salvation; they even came into Paul’s field, 
and as the Acts tell us (XV.2) Paul and Barnabas 
“had no small contest with them.” The question 
under discussion was so important that it demanded 
an immediate and definite solution. In appearance 
Paul seemed to dissent from the other Apostles. 

The first Christians had for a few years the twelve 
Apostles with them, and it seems surprising that a 
similar question could arise. It concerned all future 
generations up to the end of time. Paul’s arguments 
had not convinced the emissaries from Judea, who 
tenaciously clung to the Jewish traditions. The 
Christians at Antioch finally decided that Paul and 
Barnabas and some of the other side should go to 
Jerusalem, to the Apostles and priests and settle the 
question. The delegates were well received by the 
Church in Jerusalem, by the Apostles, and by the 
ancients. Besides the delegation Paul had also a 
special revelation concerning his journey to Jeru- 
salem, as he himself informs us (Gal. II].1). At that 
time, as we learn from the same source (11.9) there 
were three Apostles in Jerusalem—James, Peter and 
John, the others were too far away. John was called 
from Ephesus, and Peter after his expulsion from 
Rome by Claudius, had returned to the mother 
church; James was Bishop of Jerusalem. At the 
meeting were present also the ancients or priests, that 
is, the priests of the first order or bishops as judges, 
and priests non-bishops who acted as advisors. We 
give to this meeting the name of Council, because it 
gave form to all ecclesiastical deliberative assemblies 


THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM 151 


of the future, concerning the presidency, the freedom 
of discussion, and the right of bishops to express their 
opinion. 

St. Paul, appointed an Apostle by Christ Himself, 
was not an inferior to the other Apostles, but his 
equality was not admitted by all and met with op- 
position. His work among the Gentiles could not but 
excite universal admiration. Peter had been the first 
to receive publicly a gentile into the Church, and had 
satisfactorily explained the justice of his act to the 
Church in Jerusalem. But when Paul began bring- 
ing them in en masse, the matter did not proceed so 
smoothly. Some false brethren thought they had too 
many arguments in their favor not to force upon pa- 
gan converts the Jewish rite of circumcision, before 
their admission into the Church. Christ had always 
conformed his life to the law; His teaching on that 
question was not understood by all in the same way. 
We need not wonder therefore that there was no 
uniform explicit belief about it. Hence the neces- © 
sity to discuss the matter, to express personal ap- 
preciation of Christ’s teaching, and above all to 
submit it to those, whom He had appointed guard- 
ians of His teaching. All the above circumstances 
led to the celebration of the Council of Jerusalem. 

Paul and Barnabas began by relating the great 
things God had done through their ministry among 
the Gentiles. This was the logical way to bring the 
question before the assembly. They told the Coun- 
cil that some converted Pharisees had arisen, and in- 
sisted that the pagan converts must be circumcised, 


ys THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


and be commanded to observe the law of Moses 
(XV.5). 

The question was freely and fully discussed. 
After that, Peter, as chief of the Apostles and su- 
preme visible head of the Church, rose to settle the 
dispute. He decided that the Gentiles can be re- 
ceived into the Church without circumcision, and he 
gave the following reasons for his decision: 1. God 
had so declared by a revelation (7). 2. He con- 
firmed it by pouring forth the Holy Ghost upon them 
(v. 8). 3. The Gentiles are no longer impure, be- 
cause they had been purified through faith (v. 9). 
4. An intolerable burden would be put upon them 
(v. 10). 5. Salvation must be obtained through the 
grace of Christ, not through the observance of the law 
(v. 11). Paul added the signs and wonders, which 
God had wrought among the Gentiles (v. 12). James 
confirmed it by the prophet Amos (v. 15). 

Peter’s discourse was very short and simple. The 
silence of the assembly approved his every word. 
Paul and Barnabas approved Peter’s decision by re- 
ferring to the wonderful ways of God in their work 
among the Gentiles. The last of the speakers was 
James, one of the Apostles, and bishop of Jerusalem. 
He may have been looked upon by the opponents of 
Paul, as one likely to side with them. In later cen- 
turies some have claimed superiority for him in the 
presidency of the Council. Their arguments are that 
when Paul in his letter to the Galatians (11.9) writes 
of the three Apostles present at the Council, he men- 
tions James first, and that at the meeting he is the 


THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM _ 153 


last speaker. The reason why Paul mentions James 
first probably was that in an effort to win his op- 
ponents, he gave first place to one, who seemed more 
in favor with them. Peter had already expressed 
himself on the question, when he gave an account of 
the conversion of Cornelius. He, however, settled 
the question of faith concerning the requirements of 
_ the law as means of salvation. James adds his ap- 
proval to the decision, and further requests that a 
few points of discipline be suggested to the Gentile 
converts, in order to promote the right understanding 
between all classes to be gathered into the one church 
—Jew and Gentile. These suggestions were adopted 
by the Council. 

These suggestions were the following: 1. That the 
Gentiles refrain from the pollution of idols, that is, 
from the flesh of victims immolated to false gods; 
the eating savored of idolatry and the Mosaic law 
strongly condemned it (Ex. XXXIV.15). 2. That 
they abstain from fornication. Morals at that time 
were so low among the Gentiles, that simple fornica- 
tion was looked upon as something indifferent. 3. 
That they abstain from things strangled. The chief 
motive of this prohibition was that the Jews abhorred 
these things; to avoid friction with the Jews, the Gen- 
tiles were ordered to submit to that prescription of 
the Old Law. This order was given, not because the 
law of Moses still prevailed and was to be imposed 
on the Gentiles, but because the Apostles made a 
new disciplinary law of it to procure the spirit of 
good fellowship between the Jews and the Gentiles. 


154 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Peter and James had both declared that the law and 
the legal prescriptions were no longer binding on the ~ 
Christians. 4. That they abstain from blood, in or- 
der not to resemble in any way the barbarians of 
that time. 

All these prohibitions, with the exception of forni- 
cation, which is always sinful, slowly disappeared, 
when Jewish and Gentile converts were so united that . 
there was no longer any need for them. To please 
his Jewish converts James added that there was no 
need for Christians to honor Moses, as he was suf- 
ficiently honored by the Jews in their synagogues. 

The decrees of the Council were written and pro- 
mulgated by the Apostles and by the seniors, that is, 
by the bishops, not by the faithful. The teaching 
Church had pronounced sentence; it issued the de- 
crees. The beginning words of the decree are: “It 
hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us” 
(XV.28). The definition is one of faith and morals. 
In framing it, the teaching body, that is, the Apos- 
tles and the Bishops, not only claim the assistance of 
the Holy Ghost, but ascribe the decision to the Holy 
Ghost, like to themselves. The teaching Church was 
convinced of its unerring knowledge in defining ques- 
tions of that kind. In their letter of promulgation 
the Apostles called the suggestions of James necessary 
things. With the exception of fornication, they are 
not so in themselves, but on account of circumstances. 
As soon as circumstances permitted, that disciplinary 
law was abrogated. 

The decree of the Council was disciplinary rather 


THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM 155 


than dogmatic; particular, not universal; transitory, 
not permanent. The only point of discussion was 
whether the law of Moses concerning circumcision 
should be enforced on the Gentiles or not. The 
Council decided that it should not, but it did not 
decide whether the law of Moses was still binding on 
the Jewish converts or not; that question had not 
been raised. The suggestions of James seem to in- 
dicate that they thought so. This explains the in- 
cident at Antioch, where Peter endeavored to satisfy 
both parties and drew upon himself the sharp rebuke 
of Paul. We have seen that Peter and Paul acted 
in the same way on former occasions, and that their 
faith was absolutely identical. The little contro- 
versy served to draw closer the bonds of affection be- 
tween the two great teachers of the Church, crowning 
it with martyrdom in the same city on the same day. 

The Council sent two messengers—Judas and Silas 
—to accompany Paul and Barnabas on their return, 
in order to convince fully the Gentiles that the views 
of Paul on these questions were those of the other 
Apostles and of the Seniors. The Council of Jeru- 
salem was the first gathering of the teaching body of 
the Church; it is the pattern, after which all similar 
gatherings have been modelled. 


CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH 
PAUL'S SECOND EVANGELICAL TOUR 


On their return to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas 
with the two messengers, delivered the letter of the 
Council to the multitude. Great joy and consolation 
prevailed on the reading of it. Judas and Silas, as 
they were prophets in the broad sense, that is, under 
divine inspiration were endowed with holy and ef- 
ficacious wisdom, contributed not a little to the gen- 
eral satisfaction, and confirmed the brethren in the 
faith. After spending some time in Antioch, the 
messengers were let go with the best wishes of the. 
community. Silas, however, decided to remain. 
Paul and Barnabas continued teaching and evangel- 
izing for some days; the Acts do not state how many. 
It was during those days after the Council of Jeru- 
salem, that Peter arrived at Antioch, and Paul ad- 
ministered that public rebuke, of which he speaks in 
his letter to the Galatians (II.11), and of which we 
treated in chapter second. After that Paul suggested 
to Barnabas that they visit again the same places, 
which they had covered during their first tour. Bar- 
nabas agreed, but desired to take along John Mark, 
his nephew. Paul was of a different opinion and ar- 


gued that John Mark should not be accepted as a com- 
156 


PAUL’S SECOND EVANGELICAL TOUR 157 


panion, because he had deserted them once before 
in Pamphylia. Paul and Barnabas were both holy 
men, but that did not prevent an occasional disagree- 
ment between them; they did not always view all 
things in the same light. On this occasion they 
thought better to part company; Paul and Silas went, 
their own way; Barnabas and Mark sailed for Cy- 
prus. God drew good from the dissension or the im- 
perfection of His Apostles for the speedier propaga- 
tion of the Gospel. The dissension, however, did not 
last very long; after a few years they were together 
again, as we read in Paul’s first epistle to the Corin- 
thians (1X.6); even John Mark later joined Paul 
(Col. 1V.10-11). 

Paul left accompanied by Silas and with the best 
~ wishes of the Christians of Antioch, who seem to have 
sided with him in his recent controversy with Peter. 
This time they traveled by land, not by sea. They 
visited Syria and Cilicia; they knew that it was not 
enough to convert but that proper care must be taken 
of the converts; they insist this time upon the ob- 
servance, not only of the commandments of God, but 
also of the precepts given by men, such as the Apos- 
tles and the Seniors. Paul went to Derbe and Lystra, 
where the first remarkable incident occurred as re- 
- Jated in the Acts. 

‘Timothy was most probably a Lystrian, converted 
together with his mother to the faith at Paul’s first 
visit. The Acts give some details concerning this 
favorite disciple of St. Paul. His father was a Gen- 
tile and ‘his mother a Jewess. Such a convert was a 


158 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


suitable companion of Paul on his apostolic peregri- 
nations. About 11 or !2 years later he was the re- 
cipient of two letters from the great Apostle. These 
give us an insight of the cordial relations that existed 
between them. 

The Jews had been forbidden to marry Canaanite 
women, but that prohibition did not include other 
Gentile women. Scripture gives us several instances 
of such marriages. Jacob, Joseph, and Moses mar- 
ried heathen women. Esther married the heathen, 
Assuerus. In the beginning of the Church the Chris- 
tians often married heathens. In later years such 
marriages were forbidden by the Church, to which 
alone Christ had given power to regulate the contract, 
which He had raised to the dignity of a sacrament. 

The Christians of Lystra and Iconium entertained 
the most favorable opinion of Timothy, and so had 
expressed it to the Apostle. Paul circumcised him, 
not because the law made it obligatory; the Council 
of Jerusalem at which Paul had assisted had declared 
it unnecessary, but because he desired to yield as far 
as he could in order to gain all. Timothy was to be 
his companion, and the Jews certainly would not take 
a change of religion, nor hear of the coming of the 
Messiah from one who was not even a Jew. The con- 
troversy that brought about the Council of Jerusalem 
had never divided the judeo- and pagano-Christians 
in those places. There was no fear therefore in sub- 
mitting willing Timothy to that Jewish rite. On 
another occasion when defence of the truth demanded 
it, Paul absolutely refused to have his disciple Titus 


PAUL’S SECOND EVANGELICAL TOUR 159 


submit to it at Jerusalem, and he openly rebuked 
Peter for favoring the Jews on that account. A few 
years later, in his letter to the Galatians (V.2), he 
openly condemned circumcision. 

After passing through Phrygia and Galatia, they 
intended to go to what was then called Asia. Asia 
was then a Roman province comprising the western 
part of Asia Minor, adjacent to the Egean sea. 
Ephesus was the capital of that province. They 
were on their way to it, when they were forbidden by 
the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel in Asia (Acts 
XVI.6) at least for the present. Through Phrygia 
they went east to Galatia to preach the Gospel. 
Then they crossed Galatia from east to west into 
Mysia, which was part of the forbidden territory, 
with the intention of going north into Bithynia, but 
again the Spirit of Jesus, that is, the Holy Ghost who 
proceeds from the Father and of the Son, forbade 
them. On the strength of this prohibition they had 
no alternative but to retrace their steps or go west. 
They crossed Mysia and came to the seaboard town 
of Troas, perhaps with the intention of returning by 
water to Antioch of Syria. Troas was at that time a 
port of great importance for the trade between Asia 
Minor and Macedonia. This town was not far away 
from ancient Troas, made famous by the songs of 
Homer. Uncertain as to what course to follow, Paul 
had a vision during the night. An angel in the hu- 
man form of a Macedonian stood before him, and be- 
sought him to pass over into Macedonia and to help 
his countrymen. This was a sufficient indication to 


160 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Paul that God’s will demanded his presence there, 
and he immediately devised means to carry it out. 
They were now four in the party—Paul, Luke, Silas, 
and Timothy. They sailed in a straight northern 
course to Neapolis and Philippi in Thrace. That 
part of Macedonia, of which Philippi was the first 
city, was a Roman-colony. The various colonies of 
Rome served as an outlet for its surplus population, 
as a help to the poor, among whom they divided the 
unoccupied land. The colonies also offered an op- 
portunity for a military career, as soldiers were sent 
to them to protect Roman rights. Apparently in 
this city there was no synagogue. When the Jews 
were forbidden to have a meeting place within a city, 
they built an oratory on the banks of a river or on 
the seashore, so as to have water for the legal ablu- 
tions. 

On the Sabbath day the missionaries went forth 
without the gate by a river side, where they noticed 
a number of women meeting for prayer; they sat 
down among them and began to speak to them. The 
Acts mention one of these women by name—Lydia. 
She came from Thyatira, and was a seller of purple, 
that is, of wool or of cloth dyed in purple; the art of 
dyeing was peculiar to her native land. She wor- 
shipped the true God and took to heart the words of 
Paul. After she and her household with her had 
been baptized, Lydia entreated the missionaries to ac- 
cept the hospitality of her house; they accepted. 

The Acts here relate an incident which shows that 
there is nothing new under the sun. Soothsayers and 


PAUL’S SECOND EVANGELICAL TOUR 161 


Spiritists were not unknown in those days; then like 
now there were people who for a pecuniary considera- 
tion availed themselves of poor fallen creatures. At 
Philippi there was a girl with a pythonical spirit, one 
who reveals the future and the occult. A python was 
an enormous snake, .which in the mythology of the 
day was killed by Apollo, the god of divination. 
This girl followed Paul and his companions when 
they were on their way to prayer and cried out: 
“These men are the servants of the Most High, who 
preach unto you the way of salvation” (XVI.17). 
She did this for many days. The soothsayer in this 
case certainly told the truth, but Paul had no mis- 
givings as to what the spirit was that caused her so 
to speak, and that possessed her. He was no other 
than the devil. Paul would not be praised by a lying 
and impure spirit, and was grieved over the condi- 
tion of the poor girl. He commanded in the name of 
Jesus Christ the devil to go out of her and he did so 
immediately. All were not pleased with this miracle. 
The masters of the poor girl, on seeing a great source 
of income gone, were not slow in taking revenge. 
They apprehended Paul and Silas and brought them 
into the marketplace before the magistrates. His- 
tory does not tell us why Luke and Timothy were 
not apprehended at the same time. The complaint 
was that those men, because they were Jews, dis- 
turbed the city. The Romans and the other Gentiles 
hated the Jews because of their peculiarities in faith 
and morals; they hated the Christians, because they 
were originally Jews. The Apostle was preaching a 


162 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


God, who had not been added to the list of gods by 
decree of the Roman senate; in that manner only 
could new gods be created. Tiberius Cesar after 
hearing of the miracles of Christ wished to find a 
place for Him among the Roman gods, but the senate 
refused because they had not been consulted first of 
all. 

Paul and Silas were indeed guilty of the imaginary 
offence; the sentence was a flogging and imprison- 
ment. The scourging had covered them with stripes; 
they were then cast into prison and the jailer was 
instructed to guard them diligently. To prevent a 
possible escape he thrust them into an inner prison, 
and made their feet fast in the stocks. Stocks were 
wooden boards with two openings, into which the 
feet of the prisoners were forced. At midnight while 
Paul was praying and thanking God aloud for the 
indignities heaped upon them, to the hearing of pris- 
oners and jailers, a tremendous earthquake shook the 
very foundations of the prison; all the doors were 
thrown open, and the bands of all prisoners were 
loosed. God again showed that all the elements are 
subject to his bidding, and must contribute to the ful- 
filment of Paul’s mission. The jailer, thinking that 
his prisoners had escaped, was about to kill himself 
in despair, when Paul cried out to him with a loud 
voice: “Do thyself no harm, for we all are here.” 
The jailer went in, fell down at the feet of Paul and 
Silas, and brought them out. He then asked them: 
“Masters, what must I do, that I may be saved?” 
(XVI.30). The earthquake was the occasion for the 


PAUL’S SECOND EVANGELICAL TOUR 163 


conversion of the jailer; he saw in it the hand of 
God protecting His Apostles. Paul immediately 
gave him and his household the necessary instruction 
and baptized them. The jailer had washed the 
wounds of the two Apostles, and laid the table for 
them: there was great rejoicing in the house. 
When morning came, the magistrates sent the ser- 
geants to release the men, but Paul was not prepared 
to recover his freedom in that way; he wanted justice 
done. He insisted that, as the magistrates had con- 
demned them without a hearing, they themselves 
should come to release them. The magistrates well 
knew that they had violated the Valerian and the Por- 
cian law, which forbade to scourge a Roman citizen. 
A lawful procedure had to be followed, and before the 
infliction of such punishment, a Roman citizen, if the 
case demanded it, had to be convicted and deprived of 
his rights. One guilty of scourging a Roman citizen 
without that procedure was guilty of the crime of 
lese majesty against the Roman people; his case was 
dealt with in Rome and the death sentence was im- 
posed. Both Paul and Silas claimed to be Roman 
citizens: their claim was not contested; all knew that 
a false claim was punishable with death. According 
to the inspired narrative, Paul and Silas returned to 
the prison, after they had dined at the house of the 
converted jailer. After the magistrates realized that 
they had overstepped their rights in the treatment of 
a Roman citizen, they were seized with a dreadful 
fear, and entreated the prisoners to come out and 
leave the city. Paul did not appeal to the Roman 


164 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


authorities, but left the prison, went to the house of 
Lydia to comfort the Christians, especially Luke and 
Timothy, and then quietly left the town. 

The four missionaries proceeded west through Am- 
phipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica. This city 
had a synagogue; the fact proves that there was a 
goodly number of Jews. For three Sabbaths Paul 
went to the synagogue and explained the Scriptures. 
He proved that Jesus, whom he preached, was the 
Christ who according to the prophecies was to die and 
rise again. Some of the Jews believed and joined 
Paul and Silas; many of the Godfearing Hellen- 
ists were converted and not a few noble women 
(XVIT.4). 

The Jews filled with envy stirred up a persecution 
against them; they got the loafers and the worst ele- 
ments in the city to join them in a riotous uproar. 
They went to the house of Jason, whose hospitality 
Paul and Silas had accepted, and insisted that he 
give up the two men, with the avowed intention of 
illtreating them. The guests were not there; in their 
stead they seized Jason and some Christians, and 
dragged them before the rulers of the city, and threw 
the blame for the commotion on them. Jason was 
covering men who had proclaimed another king 
against the orders of Czsar; this other king was no 
other than Jesus. They compelled Jason to swear al- 
legiance to the Roman Empire and to Cesar, and to 
be a bondman for Paul; Jason would be responsible 
if Paul were found guilty. It was an easy task for 
Jason to prove that Paul had no evil intentions 


PAUL’S SECOND EVANGELICAL TOUR 165 


against the empire; the prisoners were set free. Un- 
der the circumstances Paul and Silas thought it best 
to leave the city; during the night they went to Berea. 

However badly Paul had been treated on several 
occasions by the Jews, in Berea he went again with 
Silas to the synagogue. Persecution did not frighten 
him; on the contrary it seems to make him all the 
more anxious to procure their eternal salvation. In 
Berea Paul had to deal with people of nobler senti- 
ments. They eagerly listened to him, and they 
found by the daily reading of the Bible that Paul’s 
teaching perfectly conformed to the prophecies of the 
Old Testament concerning the Messiah. They ex- 
amined the new faith with the light they had, before 
they embraced it. Many men and honorable pagan 
women were added to the Church. The Jews at 
Thessalonica had meanwhile heard of the grand suc- 
cess of Paul in Berea, and they tried again their pre- 
vious trick. They came over, stirred up and trou- 
bled the multitude. Paul and the converted brethren 
thought prudent for him to avoid the snares set him 
by his enemies. He left Silas and Timothy to per- 
fect the religious instruction of the neophytes, and 
proceeded towards the sea. Those who had con- 
ducted Paul thus far, sailed with him to Athens, the 
intellectual, scientific and artistic capital of the world, 
as Rome was the political capital. The Bereans then 
returned to their city with a message from the Apostle 
to Silas and Timothy to follow him immediately. 


CHAPTER NINETEENTH 
PAUL AT ATHENS AND AT CORINTH 


PAUL’s original plan was not to go so far west as 
Athens; he had been called to Macedonia only (Acts 
XVI.9). A combination of circumstances almost 
against his will, brought him to the capital of Greece, 
the mother of arts and of philosophy. Athens was to 
be the scene of a contest between human and divine 
wisdom. Athens had within its borders a multitude 
of poets, orators, and philosophers. Their poems and 
discourses in honor of the gods prove that Paul was 
quite correct in his appreciation of the idolatrous 
city. Athens in this regard excelled all other cities of 
the empire, and for the number of its gods and altars 
it held first place among the cities of Greece. The 
field which Paul was going to cultivate differed 
greatly from all other places where he had preached 
the word of God. Elsewhere he had spoken either 
to Jews who expected the Messiah, or to simple and 
ignorant heathens. We find him now in the midst of 
proud philosophers, in a city of the highest culture, 
superficial though it was. Paul’s spirit was stirred 
within him, seeing the city wholly given to idolatry 
(XVII.16). Paul did not exaggerate. Pausanias 


before him thought that there were more gods in 
166 


PAUL AT ATHENS AND CORINTH | 167 


Athens than in the rest of the world. Petronius 
claimed that it was easier to find a god than a man. 
The harvest offered the brightest prospects; Paul 
therefore insisted that his co-workers, Silas and Tim- 
othy, join him immediately. He began by disputing 
with the Jews in their synagogue, and with the others 
who served God, but these were probably few in num- 
ber. Then he was to be seen every day in the mar- 
ketplace, where he found a larger audience, because 
there the philosophers and the orators addressed the 
people. 

His first argument was with the Epicureans and the 
Stoics, as we learn from the Acts (XVII.18). Athens 
had at that time, besides these, two other schools of 
philosophy following the renowned Plato and Aris- 
totle. The first two denied the immortality of the 
soul. As Paul preached the resurrection of the dead, 
it is possible that only these took part in the argu- 
ment. Epicurus taught that man’s supreme happi- 
ness consisted in sensual pleasure, which theory Hor- 
ace called a pig from Epicurus’ herd. Pagan writers 
have left us several details of his licentious life. He 
is said to be the author of the saying: Eat, drink, and 
play, after death there is no pleasure. Paul had 
learned in his youth that his fellow-citizens of Tar- 
sus carried out that motto. 

The Stoics, severe and morose, were the opposite of 
the Epicureans; Zeno was their founder: . The chief 
tenets of the Stoics were the following: God is fate; 
all things are ruled by fate; virtue consists in the 
power and the industry of the individual; all virtues 


163 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


are alike as are also all vices, he who has one has them 
all; no pity and no mercy to the culprit, because these 
dispositions are weaknesses of the mind; a wise man 
may have to end his own life; all gods, except Jupiter 
are mortal and eventually will be transformed into 
Jupiter; God is the soul of the world; he therefore 
goes under different.names according to the objects 
which he animates—Neptune of the sea, Ceres of the 
land, Bacchus of the vine, etc. 

Both the Epicureans and the Stoics were polythe- 
ists, or rather atheists; admitting many gods is deny- 
ing the one true God. Throughout the history of the 
Church the voluptuous Epicureans and the arrogant 
Stoics will prove to be its worst enemies. With such 
theories Paul had to contend. He had to show his 
hearers that virtue, goodness, and salvation can only 
be found in the crucified Christ, by whose grace and 
power we may be raised to eternal life, that He is the 
mediator between God and man, that his life chaste, 
pious, and holy must be the norm of our life. 

Some of Paul’s hearers thought that there was no 
sense in all he prated; others were of the opinion that, 
as he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection, 
he was endeavoring to introduce new gods. They 
took him up to Mars hill, or to the Areopagus, where 
far removed from the noise of the market place he 
could explain to the curious Athenians what he meant 
by the new things he had brought to their ears 
(XVII.20). The supreme court used to meet here 
and the name Areopagus was also applied to it, but 
Paul was not dragged before judges; he does not 


PAUL AT ATHENS AND CORINTH 169 


say a word in his own defence; he had simply ac- 
cepted a polite invitation. The author of the Acts 
incidentally remarks that the Athenians did so, not 
for love of the truth, but out of vain curiosity. Plu- 
tarch and others show up, as does Luke, the garrulous 
curiosity of the Athenians; they had always time to 
hear the latest and always looked for new surprises; 
the market place and the barber shop were the in- 
formation bureaus. 

Paul had come to them with something entirely 
new; they were anxious to hear him in the vast Are- 
opagus. Paul standing in the center began his dis- 
course by praising them in order to captivate their be- 
nevolence: “Ye men of Athens, | perceive that in all 
things you are too superstitious’ (XVII.22). To 
praise them he uses an ambiguous term; he praises 
their religious dispositions, but insinuates that these 
are not the worship of the true God; he calls them 
superstitious, that is, over religious; he did not wish 
to offend nor to flatter. 

On his wanderings through the city Paul had seen 
their idols. An altar dedicated to an unknown God 
had especially struck his attention, and formed the 
basis of his discourse; he was the God whom Paul 
announced. The Athenians worshipped that God in 
their ignorance; they thought him to be a god like 
Jupiter or Minerva. They implicitly worshipped the 
true God without knowing Him explicitly. Paul was 
addressing heathens and therefore did not call him 
the God of Abraham and Isaac, as he did on former 
occasions in his meetings with the Jews. He was 


170 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


speaking to philosophers, and therefore described 
God in a philosophical way, so as to make it plain 
that He is the only God, and that all other gods are 
false. He first showed Him to be the Creator of all, 
which the Epicureans denied; no pagan philosopher 
ever had a clearer conception of creation. He then 
proceeded to show that He was the Lord and Ruler 
of the whole world, while the gods of the heathens 
were national and local, that therefore He cannot be 
enclosed in handmade temples, and that the heathens 
act wrongly in offering food and drink to support 
Him, as He gives life to all. He taught them that all 
mankind proceeded from one couple, that God dis- 
tributed the earth among them and appointed times 
and limits, and that God’s providence ruled all and 
everything. This upset the theory of the Stoics and 
other pagans, to whom Fate was the only explanation 
of the world’s phenomena. Incidentally Paul made 
them understand the unity of the human race, which 
polytheism did not admit. Idolatry divided the na- 
tions; each one had its own gods; their myths as- 
signed a different origin to the various peoples and 
caused hatred among them. 

In explaining how in God we live, and move and 
are (XVII.28) he did not quote from the Scriptures, 
as he would have done in addressing Jews, but ap- 
pealed to the testimony of their own poets—Aratus 
and others, who said: For we are also his offspring, 
that is, of Jupiter. Paul applied this but in differ- 
ent manner to the true God. Finally he alluded to 
Christ and His resurrection from the dead, and in- 


PAUL AT ATHENS AND CORINTH) 171 


sisted upon the necessity of penance and of giving up 
the worship of idols. 

When hearing of the resurrection of the dead, some 
mocked him, probably the Epicureans; others prob- 
ably Stoics said: “We will hear thee again about 
this matter” (32). The Athenians were lightheaded 
and proud, two moral dispositions that prevent the 
word of God from sprouting and bringing forth fruit. 
Yet the sacred writer assures us that Paul's efforts 
were not in vain; he had made some notable converts, 
such as Denis the Areopagite and a woman named 
Domaris. Denis was one of the most famous of the 
judges of the Areopagus, and he was afterwards ap- 
pointed by the Apostle bishop of Athens. He left us 
some very sublime books on such subjects as: The ce- 
lestial and ecclesiastical hierarchy, mystic theology, 
etc. The church of Athens flourished wonderfully 
during his episcopate. The great cause or occasion of 
Denis’ conversion was the miraculous darkening of 
the sun at the death of Christ, when at Heliopolis in 
Egypt hein wonderment exclaimed: “Either the God 
of nature suffers or this world will be destroyed.” 
The suffering God was the unknown God, of whom 
Paul spoke and in whom Denis believed. After his 
conversion he followed the Apostle for a few years to 
perfect his religious education, and then went with 
him to Jerusalem, where he was present, as he him- 
self attests, at the death and burial of Christ’s 
Mother. He wrote a letter to St. John in exile at 
Patmos and foretold to him a speedy return. Shortly 
afterwards St. John advised him to go to Rome to 


DAZ THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


see Clement, the third successor of Peter. Clement 
sent him with Rusticus and Eleutherius to Gaul to 
preach the Gospel. As bishop of Paris in extreme 
old age he was beheaded for the faith. A constant 
tradition, accepted by the best critics, holds that after 
being beheaded he carried his head in his hands and 
walked two miles; the angels furnished the triumphal 
music. 

Paul left Athens and proceeded to Corinth. Here 
he met a Jew named Aquila, and his wife Priscilla, 
who had recently come over from Italy, owing to the 
expulsion of the Jews from Rome by order of Clau- 
dius. Suetonius tells us that for continuous uproars 
under the leadership of Chrestus, Claudius expelled 
the Jews from Rome; so does the pagan author con- 
firm the account given by the inspired writer. 

That edict must have soon fallen into desuetude, 
because a few years later we again find Aquila and 
Priscilla in Rome (Rom. XVI.3). Aquila was a 
tentmaker like Paul; the Apostle accepted his hos- 
pitality and worked with him. As usual he went 
every Sabbath to the synagogue and preached Jesus 
to both Jews and Greeks; he preached on the Sabbath 
and worked during the week, so as not to be a bur- 
den to any one. When Silas and Timothy joined 
him from Macedonia, he devoted all his time to the 
preaching of God’s word. We know from the letters 
of Paul that these two disciples were with him in 
Athens, whence he sent them back to Thessalonica 
and remained alone (1 Thes. IIJ.1-2). From his 
second letter to the Corinthians (X1I.8-9) we may 


PAUL AT ATHENS AND CORINTH_ 173 


conclude that Silas and Timothy brought to Paul 
help in money, which the liberal Philippians had con- 
tributed to his support. For that reason Paul was 
enabled to devote himself to preaching without be- 
ing compelled to do handwork. So far the chief at- 
tentions of Paul were for the Jews, but they gainsaid 
him and blasphemed Christ. In holy anger he shook 
his garments and told them: “Your blood be upon 
your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will 
go unto the Gentiles’ (XVIJII.6). Paul had done his 
duty; they were to blame for their continued blind- 
ness; they were their own murderers. 

Leaving the synagogue, he went to the neighbor- 
ing house of Titus the Just, a man who worshipped 
God; there he continued to preach the Gospel, thereby 
giving an opportunity to the Jews to hear him, if they 
wished. Whether he changed his residence is not 
said, but he certainly kept up friendly relations with 
Aquila and Priscilla. The sentiments that had been 
expressed by the Jews seemed to preclude the pos- 
sibility of their conversion, but a conversion is the 
work of God’s grace. Paul soon numbered among 
his converts some very prominent Jews. Among 
them was the ruler of the synagogue—Crispus with 
all his house. We know from his first epistle to the 
Corinthians (1.14) that he baptized with his own 
hand Crispus, Caius, and the household of Stephen; 
but many others had been baptized, probably by 
Silas and Timothy. 

Paul had occasion to fear that after the conversion 
of its ruler the whole synagogue would turn against 


174 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


him. He had a vision during the night. The Lord 
bade him not to fear, but to speak and not to hold his 
peace; He promised that he would not be hurt and 
that a rich harvest of souls awaited him (XVIII.9- 
10). Paul remained in Corinth one year and six 
months. Gallio was for that last year proconsul of 
Achaia: he was the brother of Seneca, Nero's teacher. 
Nero himself was Claudius’ stepson and had been 
adopted as a son by the emperor. It is possible that 
Paul made the acquaintance of Seneca; some have 
claimed that there was even an exchange of letters 
between them. It is certain, however, that Seneca 
did not become a Christian, but lived and died a 
Stoic. 

The Jews again rose up against Paul with one ac- 
cord, and brought him before the judgment seat of 
Gallic. They accused him of persuading men to 
worship God contrary to law, both of the Jews and of 
the Romans. The Jewish law forbade to worship a 
corporeal God, and the Roman law forbade the ad- 
mission of new gods without a decree of the Senate. 
Gallio held that this Roman law applied to Rome 
only and not to the provinces; he did not take the 
Jewish law into consideration at all. As there was 
no question of a crime, such as theft or murder, he did 
not think that religious matters were of his compe- 
tence, and he refused to be a judge of such things. 
He drove them all away from the judgment seat. 
Having failed to impress the proconsul with their 
tale, they turned their anger on the ruler of the 
synagogue—sosthenes, the successor of Crispus, who 


PAUL AT ATHENS AND CORINTH 175 


had previously been converted by Paul. Sosthenes 
was a Christian at heart and favored the Apostle. 
In the eyes of the Jews he was a traitor, who had lost 
their case and they beat him before the judgment 
seat. Gallio cared not for what happened; fear of 
drawing their anger upon his head prevented him 
from protecting the innocence of Sosthenes and the 
peace of the empire. Paul was not in the least up- 
set by recent occurrences, and fearlessly protracted 
his stay for several days. 

At this point the sacred writer informs us that 
Paul had shorn his head, for he had a vow 
(XVIII.18). He shore his head, either because he 
had formerly taken the vow of the Nazarites, or a 
similar vow that no scissor or razor should touch his 
head and that time had expired, or more probably be- 
cause he wished to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice in 
the temple, and therefore abstained for the thirty 
days previous from wine, and cut his hair. Josephus 
Flavius informs us that such a custom prevailed 
among the Jews. The first alternative is hardly pos- 
sible, because the vow of the Nazarites (Numbers 
VI) demanded that the head be shaved in Jerusalem 
before the Tabernacle, and the hair be burned as a 
sacrifice. 

Paul left Corinth in his own good time with Aquila 
and Priscilla and went to Ephesus, where he left 
them, probably to prepare his way. Ephesus was the 
metropolis of Asia Minor; it possessed the famous 
temple of Diana, and a multitude of orators and phi- 
losophers, St. John frequently resided there, when 


176 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


he founded and ruled the churches of Asia. Accord- 
ing to tradition the Blessed Mother of Jesus was 
there cared for by St. John for some years. Al- 
though requested to tarry a longer time, Paul would 
not consent, but promised to return if it was God’s 
will: he intended now to celebrate the approaching 
feast in Jerusalem. - 

Paul went down to Cesarea and thence to Jeru- 
salem, where he probably met the Mother of God, to 
whom he related his trials and whose patronage he 
implored. He made only a short stay in the Holy 
City, and returned to Antioch, the city he loved So 
well. This completed the second apostolic journey 
of St. Paul. 

At this point in the sacred history of the Church the 
inspired writer abruptly intercepts the work of the 
great Apostle to acquaint us with another agency for 
the propagation of Christianity in the early days; we 
mean the lay apostolate. Three such lay apostles are 
set as models before us—Aquila, Priscilla, and 
Apollo. We have had occasion to mention the serv- 
ices of the first two; Appollo now enters upon the 
scene. He was a Jew, born at Alexandria, and 
praised for his eloquence and his knowledge of the 
Scriptures. His religion was apparently a surpris- 
ing mixture. In his fervor he spoke accurately of 
Jesus, and at the same time knew only the Baptism 
of John. How could that happen? He must have 
learned from John the Baptist or from his disciples 
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah promised to 
the Jews, and that the baptism of penance was neces- 


PAUL AT ATHENS AND CORINTH) 177 


sary. Although only a catechumen he began to 
speak boldly in the synagogue, while his own spirit- 
ual instruction was being perfected by the two lay 
workers—Priscilla and Aquila. The wife here is 
mentioned before the husband to show that she had 
the larger share in the Christian education of Apollo. 
Eloquent and well versed in the Scriptures Apollo 
submits with humility and docility to the teaching 
of Priscilla and Aquila. We find in the first epistle 
to the Corinthians (III.6) Paul’s sentiments con- 
cerning this lay apostolate. He places the work of 
Apollo on a level with his own; “I have planted, 
Apollo watered, but God gave the increase.” All the 
early Christians, although not with equal prominence, 
endeavored to make Jesus known to their fellow men. 
Brotherly love was the Master's own command; the 
early Christians knew that the best proof of that love 
was their cooperation with Christ for the salvation of 
the world. 


CHAPTER TWENTIETH 
THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS 


AFTER Paul had paid a visit to Jerusalem, he re- 
turned to Ephesus according to his promise. His 
stay in Ephesus gives us a clear insight into the dog- 
matic and disciplinary teaching of the primitive 
Church. On his arrival Paul found some disciples, 
who had never heard of the Holy Ghost; they had 
been baptized in John’s baptism. Who were these? 
They could not have been baptized and instructed 
by Apollo, or Aquila or Priscilla, for in that case 
they would have known that the baptism of John had 
been superseded by that of Christ. They either had 
been baptized by John some twenty years before, 
when on a visit to Jerusalem for the holidays, or they 
had recently come from some part of Judea, where 
the Christian religion had not been preached. From 
the question put to them by Paul: In what then were 
you baptized? the conclusion seems evident that in 
those days Baptism was conferred with the express 
mention of the Holy Ghost, not in the mere name of 
Christ. After Paul had explained the necessity of 
Christian baptism those disciples were baptized. 

He then imposed his hands upon them and the 


Holy Ghost came down upon them, and they spoke 
178 


ibe Gun Chl ORCEPHESUS 179 


with tongues and prophesied (XIX.8). This is the 
same rite which we saw Peter and John conferring 
on the converts of Philip in Samaria after their bap- 
tism, and with the same results. This rite was en- 
tirely distinct from baptism, and was called in later 
years Confirmation. There were about twelve men 
so confirmed. 

For three months in succession Paul continued to 
teach in the synagogue; with what results the Acts 
do not state, but some were hardened, and not only 
refused to obey, but even cursed the way of the Lord 
before the multitude. Paul left them to their repro- 
bate sense and for the next two years he continued his 
missionary labors in the school of one Tyrannus, or 
of a certain tyrant. It is not certain whether this 
was the proper name of an individual, or the common 
name for a powerful man, a ruler of possibly royal 
descent. For school we may probably understand 
the porch of the house. The reasons why Paul se- 
lected this place are not given in the Acts; perhaps 
to have the protection of a powerful man against the 
audacity of the Jews. During those two years most 
of the people of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles, had an 
opportunity to hear the word of God; the Jews were 
attracted to Ephesus by business motives, and the 
Gentiles to worship in the famous temple of Diana. 

At this period of the history of the Church the 
Acts inform us that God wrought more than ordinary 
miracles by the hand of Paul. Handkerchiefs and 
aprons that had been used by the Apostles were ea- 
gerly sought, and applied to the sick and the pos- 


180 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


sessed, with the result that diseases departed from 
them, and that the wicked spirits were driven out. 
_ God by working the miracles evidently approved the 
practice. | 

As the magicians of Pharaoh endeavored to offset 
or duplicate the miracles of Moses, so some of the 
Jewish exorcists tried to drive out the evil spirits by 
adopting the formula of Paul; viz., in the name of the 
Lord Jesus. The seven sons of the Jewish rabbi, 
Sceva, tried it, but the evil spirits knew the difference, 
and exclaimed: “Jesus I know, Paul I know, but 
who are your” (XIX.15.) The evil spirit leaped 
upon two of Sceva’s sons and mastered them, until 
they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 
They thought that words on the lips of Paul would 
have the same efficacy on their own, but they soon 
learned their mistake. The Jewish Church before 
Christ had its exorcists; and so long as it was the 
true church, it had power to cast out devils in the 
name of Jehovah; but God was no longer with it. 
The devil had the best of these last supposed exor- 
cists. Their failure soon became known to Jews and 
Gentiles: fear fell upon them all to the greater honor 
of the name of Jesus. 

The Acts give us the proof that the above occur- 
rence had made a deep impression. Of the believers 
many came to confess and declare their sins. We 
need not necessarily believe that here for the first 
time we meet with auricular confession; it may have 
been a general and public confession. The Gentiles 


THESGHURGH OB EPHESUS 18] 


who had been converted through the failure of 
Sceva’s sons, were preparing for baptism and acted 
as the believers. Many of them gave a most inter- 
esting proof of their sincerity, that calls for followers 
even in the present day. Those who had followed 
curious arts, brought together their books on magic 
and burnt them. To show the extent of these prac- 
tices in Ephesus and at the same time of the sacrifice 
they made preparatory to their admission in the 
Church, the Acts expressly record that an appraise- 
ment was made and that the value of books so burnt 
represented in value about seven thousand dollars of 
our currency. 

Paul meanwhile was thinking of his trip to Jeru- 
salem, and was on his way to visit Macedonia and 
Achaia, and then the inspired writer makes him say: 
“After I have been there, I must see Rome also” 
(XIX.21). His first intention was to go from Ephe- 
sus to Corinth, then proceed into Macedonia, return 
thence to Corinth, and then go to Jerusalem. He 
changed his plan somewhat so as to avoid Corinth 
(2 Cor. I.15-16). He did not wish to see them in 
sorrow, but to spare them he desires them first to 
amend their ways, which he hoped would be the re- 
sult of his first epistle, and also of the warnings of 
Timothy, whom he soon after sent to them. Paul's 
ardent desire of seeing Rome was more in the nature 
of an interior impulse of the Holy Ghost; he wished 
to give some help to the Church founded by Peter, 
but his wish was not granted immediately; four long 


182 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


years would pass, two of which in prison, and then 
he would go, not as a free Roman, but as a prisoner 
under military escort. 

Paul sent two of his helpers—Timothy and Evas- 
tus—into Macedonia, to prepare the ways for his 
coming, and especially to arrange for the collection 
in favor of the poor Christians of Jerusalem. He 
further determined that Timothy should go from 
Macedonia to Corinth, and try to settle the disagree- 
ments, that had arisen in that Church. Shortly be- 
fore messengers had come to advise Paul of grave dis- 
sensions at Corinth. He then wrote his first epistle 
to the Corinthians. It reached its destination before 
Timothy’s arrival in that city. Paul’s intention was 
to tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door 
and evident was opened to him, that is, there was 
hope of many conversions; but at the same time he 
had many adversaries (1 Cor. XVI. 8.9). 

Meanwhile Paul’s work at Ephesus had aroused 
the anger of a certain class of citizens. This led to 
a great disturbance similar to the one at Philippi 
(XVI). It was not an explosion on the part of the 
Jews or of fanaticism, but the immediate cause of it 
was a pecuniary consideration of one of the crafts. 
Paul’s preaching was affecting adversely the trade of 
the silversmiths. He had drawn away by persuasion 
a great multitude of the city and of all Asia from the 
worship of the great Diana of the Ephesians; the 
silversmiths were the losers. Their chief product 
was copies in silver of the temple of Diana, with a 
statuette of the goddess inside. The temple of Diana 


THE CHURGH OF EPHESUS 133 


at that time was mentioned as one of the seven won- 
ders of the world: it contained a statue of Diana, 
which the Ephesians believed had come down from 
heaven. The copies were in great demand and had a 
ready sale. Demetrius was probably the foreman of 
the craft; he was not slow in foreseeing that if seces- 
sions continued at the same rate, their trade was in 
danger. He called the members of the craft together 
and explained to them that their trade and their 
gains were in danger of being destroyed, and that 
even the temple of Diana would be reputed for noth- 
ing. After hearing this statement, all shouted: Great 
is Diana of the Ephesians! The whole city was 
filled with confusion (XIX.2-9). Instead of go- 
ing for Paul, the angry crowd seized hold of Gaius . 
and Aristarchus, two of Paul’s companions from 
Macedonia, and rushed them into the theatre, that is, 
the courtroom. Paul wished to throw himself im- 
mediately into the crowd, but his disciples, and some 
of his friends among the rulers of Asia, dissuaded 
him from doing so, while others called for him. 
Those called by the sacred writer rulers of Asia were 
ten men, who had charge of the public games and of 
the sacred ceremonies in honor of the gods and of the 
emperor. They were selected from among the in- 
fluential men of the country; their office was not 
remunerated and entailed many expenses. As Paul 
had friends among them he certainly had acquired 
prestige with the upper class. Great confusion 
prevailed among the crowd in the courtroom; many 
did not know what had brought them there; they 


184 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


had followed the rush without being aware of the 
motive. There were many Jews among them. The 
silversmiths did not look with favor upon them; 
they knew that they had no respect for Diana, and 
therefore did not patronize them. The Jews selected 
one Alexander from among themselves to call the 
meeting to order. Their intention was to exculpate 
themselves by showing that they had nothing in com- 
mon with the teaching of Paul. Alexander beckoned 
with his hand for silence, but when the audience 
realized that he was a Jew, pandemonium broke 
loose, and for two hours they kept shouting: Great 
is Diana of the Ephesians! Finally the town clerk 
succeeded in appeasing the multitude and Alexander 
was allowed to speak. The inspired writer has 
preserved for us at least a part of his speech, which 
for good logic appealed to the people. To ingratiate 
himself with his audience, Alexander began by telling 
them that the whole world knew their devotedness to 
the great Diana, Jupiter’s offspring; then he requested 
them to be quiet and do nothing rashly. He added 
an Officious lie by stating that the prisoners were not 
guilty of sacrilege, nor of blasphemy against the god- 
dess. He finally advised the craftsmen that, if they 
had a case against any man, the courts of justice 
were open to them, and that for any other matter 
a lawful assembly may decide. He warned them 
further that they were in danger of having to give 
an account of that day’s uproar; that they might be 
accused of sedition before the emperor or the pro- 
consul. He concluded that there was no one to 


PEE GWU h Gh ORSEPHESUS 185 


blame for the day’s concourse and dismissed the 
assembly. It appears that all took the hint and 
quietly dispersed. 

We must remark that here and elsewhere Luke 
omits to mention many and important facts; he 
touches only superficially upon some incidents in the 
travels of Paul. Paul says that he was scourged 
three times; only one scourging is mentioned. Not 
a word is said about Peter’s episcopate in Antioch and 
in Rome. Paul writes about his fight with beasts at 
Ephesus (1 Cor. XV.32). Luke does not mention 
what happened in that regard. Did he mean that 
the Ephesians acted as beasts towards him, when he 
had far worse encounters with the Jews at Derbe, 
Lystra, and Corinth? and yet nowhere are they called 
beasts. It was not the intention of the revealing 
Spirit that all should be recorded in writing, however 
important the facts may appear. The evangelists 
did not record all the deeds and words of Jesus; the 
writer of the Acts did not deem it necessary for the 
work of the Apostles. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST 
PAUL'S THIRD APOSTOLIC TOUR 


Arter the tumult raised by the silversmiths at 
Ephesus had ceased, Paul called the disciples to- 
gether, exhorted them to be steadfast in the faith, and 
took his leave. He departed earlier than he had an- 
ticipated and for a long time. At the end of his third 
tour he passed not far from Ephesus, but did not en- 
ter the city. He invited the clergy of Ephesus to the 
nearby town of Miletus, and delivered to them a 
wonderful speech, of which we give a synopsis in this 
chapter. On his way into Macedonia he broke his 
journey at Troas. He certainly stopped at Philippi, 
where he had announced the Gospel before, and 
whose citizens were so well disposed towards him. 
Frequently he had received alms from them. He 
tells us of all these particulars in his letter to the 
Philippians. 

From Macedonia Paul went to Corinth to keep his 
promise and remained with the Corinthians three 
months during the winter. Alms had been collected in 
Achaia for the poor of Jerusalem, and Paul was about 
to take them to the beneficiaries, when the Jews laid 
in wait for him to rob him of his treasure (XX.3). 


He therefore changed his plans, and instead of sailing 
186 


PAUL’S THIRD APOSTOLIC TOUR 187 


directly for Syria, and visiting Antioch on his way, 
he decided to go by the roundabout way of Mace- 
donia. He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, 
a kinsman of his (Rom. XXII.21). Aristarchus and 
Secundus of Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, 
Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. Tychicus, Paul’s 
dearest brother and faithful minister, was as a rule the 
messenger bearing his orders to the various churches 
(Eph.VI1.21). Trophimus was an Ephesian by birth 
and a convert from heathenism. On one occasion, 
Paul introduced him into the temple. The Jews con- 
sidered that a desecration—a Gentile in the temple! 
Paul was seized on that account (Acts XXI.29). 
Trophimus was later on consecrated bishop by the 
Apostle and sent as a missionary to France, and be- 
came the first bishop of Arles. Luke joined the 
company at Troas. 

The Acts tell us (XX.7) that on the first day of 
the week, that is, on Sunday, the faithful came to- 
gether to break bread. The expression “to break 
bread” in the Primitive Church meant the celebra- 
tion of the Holy Eucharist. We learn therefrom 
that the faithful met on Sunday for the celebration 
of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Communion, before 
that was enacted into law for the universal Church 
by Anacletus, the fourth successor of Peter. Paul 
protracted his discourse until midnight, when in the 
morning he would proceed on his journey. 

In the beginning of the Church the Lord’s Supper, 
as it was called, was celebrated in the evening, in 
imitation of Our Lord. We must admire the fervor 


188 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


of Paul and the devotion of the audience in that 
farewell speech protracted unto midnight. The 
Lord’s Supper followed upon the exhortation. We 
learn from the very early writers that on Sundays 
the faithful fasted until after Holy Communion, out 
of respect, not because there was a precept to that 
effect. There was a great number of lamps in the 
upper chamber to light up the room and for decora- 
tive purposes in the celebration of the Holy Eu- 
charist. The room must have been crowded, because 
we are informed that a young man had taken his 
seat on the window sill. He was overpowered with 
a deep sleep and fell down from the third loft to the 
ground (XX.9). Eutychius, as he was named, was 
taken up dead. What part the common enemy took 
in the accident we do not know, but the sad event 
cast a gloom upon the joyful meeting. Paul went 
down immediately and laid himself upon the corpse, 
not to find out whether he was really dead, there 
was no doubt about it, but to recall him to life by 
that symbolical act, as some prophets of the Old Tes- 
tament had done before him. So did Elias raise to 
life the widow’s son (3 Kings XVII.21) and Eliseus 
the dead child (4 Kings I1V.34). Paul embraced him 
and told the assembly: Be not troubled for his soul 
isin him. Here is no question of an apparent death; 
Paul did not say: His soul is still in him; but the 
miracle accompanied the words, just as when Christ 
said to the ruler: “Go thy way, thy son liveth” 
(Jno. IV.50). Christ had foretold to His disciples 
that they would do greater signs than He had done. 


PAUL'S THIRD APOSTOLIC TOUR 189 


Ancient writers tell us that Eutychius afterwards 
followed St. John and died a martyr in Spain. We 
can imagine the joy of the community on account of 
this direct intervention of the omnipotent God. The 
risen young man went with the others into the upper 
chamber, and joined in the celebration of the Lord’s 
Supper, which the Apostle apparently celebrated after 
the miracle. After that he partook of a fraternal 
meal with them and kept on exhorting them until 
daybreak, when he departed. 

He had sent his companions by water to Asson 
on the east coast of Mysia with instructions to await 
his arrival. He made the trip by land, which made 
the distance from Troas much shorter and enabled 
him to tarry longer with the faithful at that place. 
At Asson they took Paul on board, and set. sail for 
Mitylene, passed Chios and anchored at Samos, an 
island in the Ionian Sea. On the following day they 
landed at Miletus. Paul had determined not to 
touch Ephesus on this trip, lest he be prevented from 
reaching Jerusalem in time for the feast of Pentecost. 
While at Miletus he called the ancients of the church 
at Ephesus to him. The two towns were about forty 
miles apart. He wished to address the pastors of 
souls in a familiar way and to open his heart to 
them. He spoke to them as a loving father, who is 
aware of his approaching end, and gave to them the 
reasons for faithfulness in their pastoral duties. 
Paul’s discourse will remain an enduring monument 
of the qualities demanded in the work of a minister of 
the Gospel. A short synopsis of it follows; the num- 


190 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


bers indicate the verses in Chapter XX of the Acts. 

Evangelical labor must be undertaken with a pure 
intention, directing it to the right purpose, which 1s, 
in the first place, the glory of God, Paul served God, 
not man (19); secondly, the salvation of souls, that 
men may do penance and embrace the faith of Christ 
(21) and so obtain the inheritance of the saints (32). 

Such labor must be constant, continuous, without 
loss of time, as Paul’s was from the first day and for 
all the time (18) night and day (31). 

Labor must be protracted according to the require- 
ments and the need of places (31). Paul worked 
among them for three years, a long time indeed for 
one who had to preach the Gospel over the whole 
Roman Empire. 

Labor must be universal, both for persons—Jews 
and Gentiles—(31) and for places, publicly and from 
house to house (20). 

Evangelical labor must be humble (19) fearless 
(24) patient in tribulations (19) generous and heroic 
even unto death (24) prudent with the weak (35) 
free from filthy lucre (33). 

If circumstances make it necessary, the evangelical 
worker must be prepared to live from the work of 
his hands in conjunction with his ministry of the 
word (34). 

To stimulate himself continually for that work, 
Paul was ever mindful of its excellence, because in 
its origin it is the ministry of the word, which he had 
received from the Lord Jesus (24); in its purpose it 
was to lead souls to the kingdom of God, by procur- 


PAUL’S THIRD APOSTOLIC TOUR 191 


ing for them the grace of God; in its exercise the 
duties are most serious. Paul claimed that he was 
free from the blood of all, as he had never been 
guilty of spiritual homicide by causing a soul to be 
lost on his account. 

In his discourse Paul addressed those whom the 
Holy Ghost had placed bishops to rule the Church 
of God. We have explained above the difference 
between Bishops and Priests in the Primitive Church. 
He warns them that they must provide for their own 
salvation, so as to procure more efficaciously the 
salvation of the whole flock, entrusted to their care. 
He foretold them that after his departure ravening 
wolves would enter, and not spare the flock. Such 
enemies would arise even from their own ranks; 
events soon proved the correctness of the prophecy. 
Hymeneus, Alexander, Phygellus and Hermogenes 
proved to be such wolves. 

Paul claimed for himself the honor of having faith- 
fully discharged the evangelical office, and could 
invite his hearers to be his followers as he was the 
follower of Christ (1 Cor. XI.1). 

Paul had told them that they would see his face 
no more. Great was the mutual love of Paul and 
his followers. The people he was addressing were 
of the same sentiments as those to whom he wrote: 
You received me as an angel of God, even as Christ 
Jesus .. . you would have plucked out your own eyes 
and would have given them to me (Gal. I[V.14-15). 
No wonder that the final parting on earth was so 
touching! Luke tells us that all fell on their knees 


192 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


to find in prayer the strength to overcome their emo- 
tions; all wept and embraced him, and accompanied 
him to the ship. As the Acts express it, he was 
parted from them; to leave people he loved so well 
meant for Paul a severe interior battle (X XI.1). 

Paul with his companions then sailed in a straight 
course, without anchoring anywhere to Coos, Rhodes, 
and Patara. The ship that had brought them so far 
was either bound for Patara, or followed the shores 
of Lysia, Pamphylia and Cilicia to Antioch. Paul 
found at Patara another ship ready to leave for Tyre. 
He took this ship so as to be in Jerusalem earlier, and 
therefore he gave up his desire to revisit Antioch. 
They left the island of Cyprus to the left, and came 
to Tyre where the ship would unload. The Gospel 
had been preached here before, but in proportion to 
the population the disciples were few, and they had to 
search for them. The missionaries remained here 
seven days. After that the whole community, the 
men with their wives and children, accompanied them 
beyond the city’s gate, and before bidding each other 
goodbye, they all knelt down on the seashore and 
prayed. The inspired writer wished us to realize 
how Paul during his short stay had endeared himself 
to the Christians. They warned Paul not to go to 
Jerusalem; they felt that evil would befall him there, 
but it was not the Holy Ghost who dissuaded him, on 
the contrary an interior inspiration invited him to go. 

From Tyre they sailed to Ptolemais, where they 
saluted the brethren; thence they proceeded to 
Cesarea, where Philip the Deacon lived, whose work 


PAUL’S THIRD APOSTOLIC TOUR 193 


at Samaria we have had occasion to admire. Philip 
had four daughters, all virgins and prophetesses. 
Luke mentions the latter fact, because they probably 
foretold Paul what dangers awaited him. All four 
were honored as saints from the first centuries of 
Christianity. Meanwhile another prophet, Agabus, 
the same who had foretold the general famine in the 
empire under Claudius, came in from Judea to 
Cesarea. He came to the house of Philip, took 
Paul’s girdle, bound his own hands and feet, and 
then solemnly said; “Thus saith the Holy Ghost: 
The man whose girdle this is, the Jews shall bind 
in this manner in Jerusalem, and shall deliver him 
into the hands of the Gentiles’ (XXI.11). Paul’s 
companions and the Christians of Czsarea used their 
best efforts to induce him to give up his trip. Paul 
consoled them and protested that he was prepared not 
only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem. All their 
pleadings availed not; they ceased their opposition, 
and all joined in saying: The will of the Lord be 
done! 


CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND 
PAUL’S LAST VISIT TO JERUSALEM 


AFTER a painful farewell to his followers at Czs- 
area, of whom many joined the pilgrims, Paul and 
his companions proceeded to Jerusalem. All knew 
that the faithful there through persecutions and rob- 
bery on the part of the Jews, had lost their property 
and were in great distress. Paul came to help them 
with the alms he had collected. Foreseeing that it 
would be next to impossible to find lodgings in a 
city crowded with visitors for the feast, they brought 
with them one Mnason, a Cyprian, who probably 
owned houses in Jerusalem, and with whom they 
would stay. No particulars are known about this 
man other than that he was an old disciple. Com- 
mentators tell us that Paul arrived about Pentecost 
in the year 58, the 14th year of Peter in Rome, the 
2nd of Nero, the year in which the Blessed Mother 
of Jesus left the earthly Jerusalem for the heavenly 
Sion. In deference to St. James, the head of the 
Church in Jerusalem, Paul presented the pilgrims to 
him, and also to the seniors, and to the priests. 
About five years later in the seventh year of Nero, 
James after a most holy life was precipitated from the 


temple and finished with a potter’s stick. There was 
194 


LAST VISIT TO JERUSALEM 195 


at that time no other Apostle in Jerusalem. After a 
cordial exchange of greetings, Paul gave a detailed 
account of the great things God had done among 
the Gentiles by his ministry. They were all Chris- 
tians and they naturally glorified God upon that 
report, but still they had their own views about Moses 
and the law. They began telling Paul of the thou- 
sands of Jewish converts, all zealous for the law, as 
he could see for himself. Addressing Paul they told 
him that they had heard that he taught the Jews who 
lived among the Gentiles to depart from Moses, not 
to circumcise their children, and not to walk accord- 
ing to the old customs. The accusation was com- 
pletely false. Paul indeed taught that the ceremo- 
nial part of the law was abrogated, and that no one 
was obliged to submit to it, but he did not contend 
that the keeping of it was bad or illicit, nor did he 
prevent the Jews from submitting to it. 

In regard to the prescriptions of the law we must 
mark three periods: Before the death of Christ, 
they were binding; after the death of Christ and up 
to a sufficient promulgation of the gospel, they were 
abrogated but the observance was not sinful; after 
that, observance of the law and of its prescriptions 
became sinful. 

Paul was warned that the Jews hearing of his 
arrival would certainly come together, complain of 
and accuse him, and perhaps illtreat and fine him, 
unless he gave proofs of his zeal for the law. The 
faithful requested him to follow their advice as a 
way out of the difficulty. They had four men with 


196 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the vow of the nazareate, which consisted in shaving 
the head, a legal ablution, and the offer of a sacrifice 
according to the law. He was to sanctify himself 
with them, and make an offering to defray the ex- 
penses of the four, who were probably too poor for a 
headshave and other incidentals, so that he be con- 
sidered as a patron of Judaism and of the Jews. 
Paul, who desired to be all to all that he might gain 
all, followed the advice of St. James and of the faith- 
ful. After having gone through that ceremony of 
purification with the four men, he entered the temple 
and notified the congregation of what he had done. 
The Jews of Asia who had caused him so much 
trouble in the past, on seeing him in the temple, 
stirred up all the people, and laid their hands upon 
him. ‘They claimed that he had offended the people, 
broken the law, and desecrated the temple by intro- 
ducing Gentiles into that holy place. They knew 
that Trophimus of Ephesus was with him and they 
thought that he had introduced him in the temple, 
that is, in the atrium, for in the temple none but 
priests could enter, and in the holy of holies only 
the pontiff, and that only once a year. The whole 
city was in an uproar; the people rushed to the 
temple, drew Paul out, and immediately shut the 
doors. While they prepared to kill him, the Roman 
tribune of a band of soldiers in the Antonia fortress 
close to the temple, was informed of the general con- 
fusion. He at once, accompanied by soldiers and 
centurions, ran down to them. As soon as the Jews 


PASh VISIbtOnqERUSALEM 197 


noticed their arrival upon the scene, they left off 
beating Paul. The tribune Claudius took charge of 
him and ordered him bound with two chains. He 
then questioned the uproarmakers who he was and 
what he had done. In the confusion all screamed 
different things so that he could not get any satisfac- 
tory answers to his questions. He took Paul to the 
military barracks. On the short distance between 
the two places the violence of the mob was such, that 
Paul had to be carried into the barracks by the 
soldiers. The multitude followed and cried out, as 
they had done a few years before in the case of his 
Master: Away with him! As he was about to be 
led into the castle, he requested the tribune to be 
allowed to speak. The tribune asked him: “Canst 
thou speak Greek? As Paul was speaking Greek, the 
tribune possibly suspected that he might be the 
Egyptian, who lately had raised a tumult and had 
led forth into the desert four thousand men that were 
murderers. This Egyptian had given himself out for 
the Messiah and had a great following of robbers, 
whose ranks were steadily increased and renewed, and 
who did much harm to the Jews, especially later at 
the siege of Jerusalem. Perhaps the question of the 
tribune to Paul implied that he could not be that 
man. Paul answered: | am a Jew of Tarsus in 
Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. He then asked 
the tribune for permission to address the crowd. 
- The tribune consented. Standing on the stairs, Paul 
beckoned with his hand and all were silent. Paul 


198 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


then began in Hebrew, that is, in Aramaic or Syro- 
Chaldean, called Hebrew, because it was the vernac- 
ular of the Jews. 

He gave an account of his criminal life before his 
conversion, of his conversion, and of the special mis- 
sion he had received from Jesus Christ. All went 
well until he told his audience that Christ had sent 
him to the Gentiles afar off (XXII.21). Then pan- 
demonium broke out again, and they screamed: 
Away with such an one from the earth, for it is not 
fit that he should live! They kept up howling, threw 
off their garments, and cast dust into the air. They 
did so to show their disgust for the words of Paul, 
and to force a sentence of condemnation from the 
tribune, because he was a troublemaker for heaven 
and earth. How they longed to stone him to death! 
As the Apostle spoke in Hebrew, the tribune had 
probably not understood him, and suspected him 
guilty of an awful crime. To find it out he ordered 
him scourged and tortured. In doing so he went 
against the Roman criminal code, which forbade an 
inquiry to begin with punishment. After they had 
bound him with thongs Paul asked a centurion 
nearby: Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that 
is a Roman and uncondemned? (XXII.26.) He 
appealed to his citizenship. The tribune was im- 
mediately informed of the fact; he claimed that he 
had bought the freedom of Rome with a great sum, 
but Paul could go one better and protested that he 
was born so. The consequences of his act dawned 
upon the tribune; for treating a Roman citizen in that 


LAST VISIT TO JERUSALEM 199 


way, he had exposed himself to the wrath of the 
Romans. 

The following day Paul was brought before the 
priests and the council, who had met by order of the 
tribune. He began to speak, but it was only a minute 
before he was interrupted. The high-priest ordered 
the bystanders to strike him on the mouth. Paul's 
answer to the insult was: God shall strike thee, thou 
whited wall. Your office demands that you judge 
according to the law, and here you order me to be 
struck against the law. This supposed curse on the 
high-priest drew forth further abuse. Paul claimed 
ignorance of the fact that at that time there was a 
high-priest. His words were more in the form of a 
prophecy than of acurse. The hypocrite was indeed 
struck, when in the year 66 he was killed, in the 
beginning of the Jewish war. In those turbulent 
times the office of high-priest was often vacant; 
furthermore there was nothing to indicate that An- 
anias was the high-priest; Paul’s ignorance was quite 
legitimate. 

Paul did not lose his presence of mind and came 
forth with a new argument in his own defence. As 
we have had frequent occasion to remark, the Jews | 
were divided into Pharisees and Sadducees; they dis- 
agreed radically in their dogmatic belief. Paul 
claimed to be a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee, 
firmly believing the resurrection of the dead. This 
assertion aroused the ire of the Sadducees, and 
placated the others, who now took up his defence, 
and openly professed that they found no evil in this 


200 VRE CRATE Ee GoURGe 


man, and that perhaps a spirit or an angel had spoken 
to him. A quarrel between the two factions ensued. 
For fear that Paul should be pulled in pieces between 
the contestants, the tribune ordered him to be brought 
into the castle. 

The following night the Lord stood by him and 
said: “Be constant for as thou hast testified of me 
in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also in 
Rome” (XXIII.12). The promise filled Paul with 
joy. He would announce Jesus not only in Jeru- 
salem, the center of religion at that time, and at 
Athens, the mother of philosophy, but in Rome, the 
capital of the world, the chief in political power and 
in polytheism ! 

Meanwhile some of the Jews had sworn that they 
would not eat or drink before they killed Paul; forty 
of them had formed the conspiracy. Plans were dis- 
cussed and adopted; the chief priests and the seniors 
were to request the tribune to bring Paul out for 
further investigation, and on the way they would 
kill him. A nephew of Paul had overheard the con- 
versation, and immediately informed his uncle of it. 
Paul called a centurion, and requested him to lead 
the young man to the tribune, because he had some- 
thing totell him. The tribune took him by the hand, 
drew him aside and had a private conversation with 
him; he then dismissed him and commanded him to 
be silent about the interview. The tribune in deal- 
ing with a Roman citizen was not prepared to take 
any chances. He called two centurions and com- 
manded them to have ready to move by nine o’clock 


LAST VISIT TO JERUSALEM 201 


that night 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and two spear- 
men, and to proceed to Cesarea. They were also to 
provide beasts for Paul to sit on, and bring him safe 
to Felix the Governor. They were bearers of a letter 
from the tribune to Felix. The whole guard moved 
during the night to Antipatris. At that distance 
from the city there was less danger of an ambush, 
and therefore the horsemen were dismissed and 
returned to the castle. The others proceeded with 
Paul to Czsarea. On arrival the centurions handed 
the letter to the governor and presented Paul before 
him. The governor enquired from what province 
Paul came, and on learning that he was from Cilicia, 
he assured him that he would have an opportunity 
to explain when his accusers arrived, and that in the 
meantime he would be detained in Herod’s judgment 
hall. Such a hall, also called pretorium, was the 
official residence of a Roman governor in the prov- 
inces. Herod the Great had formerly occupied, per- 
haps built, this palace. Paul was not thrown into an 
ordinary prison; the tone of Claudius Lysias’ letter 
was rather favorable to Paul. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD 
PAUL IN= PRISON AT CAESAREA 


Five days after Paul’s arrival in Cesarea, a delega- 
tion composed of the high-priest Ananias, of some 
elders, and a lawyer and orator named Tertullus, 
came from Jerusalem to testify against Paul. Ter- 
tullus was well versed in Roman law, and an eloquent 
Latin scholar. The tribune Lysias, after having sent 
Paul on his way to Czsarea, had informed the priests 
of what he had done, lest he should appear to deceive 
them. They then resolved at once to send the above 
delegation. Ananias was the most interested. Asa 
Sadducee he hated Paul and Christ, and he had oc- 
casion to fear that he would be held responsible for 
the tumult in Jerusalem, and for his insult to the 
court, when he ordered Paul struck in the face. Ter- 
tullus is the spokesman before governor Felix, after 
Paul had been brought in. 

The prosecutor began his speech with a base flat- 
tery to catch the benevolence of the governor. Fe- 
lix is praised for the peace they enjoyed, and for all 
the improvements he had made, all of which the 
speaker gratefully acknowledged. The flattering 
terms were a tissue of lies. Tacitus in his history 


gives us the opposite impression. The gratitude of 
202 


PAUL IN PRISON AT CAESAREA — 203 


the Jews was such that shortly after the departure of 
Felix they lodged charges against him with the em- 
peror; he was no longer the most excellent Felix 
then, although they had assured him that always and 
everywhere they had praised his benefits. 

After the introduction Tertullus charged Paul with 
being a pestilent man, the author of all the trouble 
in the world, and especially of the late sedition in 
Jerusalem, and the profanator of the temple. The 
Jews corroborated the statements of their speaker. 
Paul’s experiences in the various cities he had evan- 
gelized show the absurdity of the accusation; in 
nearly all the Jews had raised a sedition against him. 

The defendant was given a sign by the governor to 
give his version and reply to the accusations. Trust- 
ing in his cause Paul dispensed with a stipulation of 
the law allowing him a lawyer to plead for him. 
Felix had been governor of various provinces of the 
empire; he had been appointed to the governorship 
of Judea two years previously by Claudius shortly 
before the latter’s death. Paul trusted in the gov- 
ernor’s integrity; he pleaded his innocence and de- 
nied all the charges against him, none of which, he 
claimed, his accusers would prove. He fearlessly up- 
held what they called heresy or the sect of the Naza- 
rene, his firm belief in the written word of God, the 
resurrection of the dead and his intention to perse- 
vere without offence to God or man. He informed 
the governor that only twelve days before he had 
come to Jerusalem to adore, and to bring relief to the 
poor and the needy; he added that he had not pro- 


204 (RELEO PRUE sora Gots 


faned the temple. Paul threw the blame for the sedi- 
tion on some Jews from Asia, who had inflicted al- 
most deadly wounds on him and who should be here 
to prosecute the case. The Apostle closed his de- 
fence with the ironical remark that the only accusa- 
tion against him can be no other than his public as- 
sertion concerning the resurrection of the dead. 

The governor deferred sentence until the tribune 
Lysias could be heard, and claimed to have more cer- 
tain knowledge of the Christian religion than he could 
gather from the hearing. From his stay in Judea 
and his governorship of adjoining provinces, and also 
from the report of the many Christians of Cesarea, 
where the new religion had been introduced by Ro- 
man soldiers (X), he knew better and refused to con- 
demn, because he was convinced of Paul’s innocence; 
at the same time he was afraid to release him, lest 
he should offend the Jews. He sheltered himself be- 
hind the information that Lysias should give, and 
ordered a centurion to keep Paul, but to treat him 
gently and to allow any of his friends to minister unto 
him. 

After a few days Felix came into the courtroom ac- 
companied by his wife Drusilla. It is not certain 
why the sacred writer added these details. Perhaps 
to call attention to the fact that she was anything but 
a respectable woman; she had been the wife of two 
others, and Felix had enticed her away from the last, 
as contemporary pagan writers tell us. Having been 
a Jewess she was curious enough to induce her adul- 
terous husband to question Paul about the difference 


PAUL IN PRISON AT CAESAREA — 205 


between Christianity and Judaism. Paul's explana- 
tion did not effect their conversion; the known truth 
made them all the greater criminals. Paul thundered 
against adultery, as John the Baptist had done before 
him. Drusilla was a daughter of Herod Agrippa, 
who killed James and imprisoned Peter. 

Felix was terrified but not converted; he allowed 
Paul to move about in the city. Money was even at 
that time an inducement to unscrupulous rulers. Fe- 
lix had learned from Paul himself that he had brought 
money to Jerusalem, and he felt confident that his 
admirers would purchase his liberty. Paul despised 
this base venality, and rather than yield preferred to 
stay in prison and to be sent eventually to Nero. 

Two years had passed since the appointment of 
Felix; his term had expired; he was succeeded by 
Portius Festus. Felix had left Paul in jail to please 
the Jews. Shortly after taking charge of his office 
Festus paid a visit to Jerusalem. The chief priests 
and the principal Jews hastened to meet him, and to 
request one particular favor of him. The request 
consisted in this that Paul should be brought back to 
Jerusalem; they had the intention to lay in wait to 
kill him on the way. Festus did not grant the re- 
quest; he understood their malevolence, possibly he 
had heard of the conspiracy, and told them that Paul 
would be detained at Caesarea, which was the judg- 
ment seat. He suggested that as he would very 
shortly return to Cesarea, those able to go might ac- 
company him, and accuse Paul if he was guilty; some 
did accept the invitation. 


206 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


After a stay of eight or ten days Festus started on 
his return trip, and the day after his arrival he sat 
in the judgment seat and commanded Paul to be 
brought before him. The Jews made many and 
grievous accusations, but they could not prove them. 
Paul told the court that he had not offended in any 
way against the law of the Jews, nor against the 
temple, nor against Cesar. Festus in order to please 
the Jews, asked him whether he was prepared to go to 
Jerusalem and there be judged by him. Paul re- 
fused: he stood before Cesar’s court and expected to 
be judged by it. He intimated that he was prepared 
to die, if he had injured the Jews, or done anything 
worthy of death, but if no such accusation was proved 
against him, he refused to be delivered to them. 
Paul was a Roman citizen and had a right to be tried 
by a Roman court; he could not even be tried against 
his will by the provincial Roman authorities. He 
did not wish to spend more time in prison than neces- 
sary and thus to be prevented from exercising his 
apostolic ministry; he desired an end to it whatever 
it might be. For that reason he appealed to Cesar. 
We know already that he wished to go to Rome 
(X1X.21) and that the Lord had expressly promised 
the granting of that desire. 

Paul appealed, not for his own life, but for the wel- 
fare of the Church; he appealed to the very man 
whom he is accused of having offended, because he 
had more than sufficient experience to show that he 
was nowhere safe in Judea or anywhere else from the 
snares of the Jews. He hoped perhaps to conciliate 


PAUL IN PRISON AT CAESAREA = 207 


the sympathy of Nero for himself and for the Chris- 
tians, or at least to die a martyr’s death in the capital 
of the world. Festus conferred with his council 
whether Paul’s appeal should be sustained or re- 
jected; if he was the author of the sedition attributed 
to him, he could not be sent to Rome but had to be 
punished on the spot. The councillors found that 
he was not, and that therefore the appeal should 
stand. The governor’s decision was: To Cesar you 
have appealed, to Czsar you shall go. 

Some days later king Agrippa and Bernice came 
down to Cesarea to offer their congratulations to Fes- 
tus on his appointment to the governorship. This 
Agrippa was the brother of Drusilla and of Bernice. 
As Luke here connects the two names of Agrippa and 
Bernice, we may infer that they were living in incest. 
It is hard to say who of the four Herods, of whom the 
Bible makes mention, is the worst. Herod the Asca- 
lonite was the murderer of the Innocents, and would 
have been of Christ, if he had found Him. His son 
mocked Christ and beheaded John the Baptist. His 
grandson imprisoned Peter and killed James. The 
great-grandson now desired to judge Paul. 

Festus told his visitors the history of Paul; 
Agrippa expressed a desire to hear the man; the re- 
quest was granted, he would see him the following 
day. Agrippa and Bernice arrived in great pomp 
into the courtroom. They must have forgotten that 
about 18 years before their father was struck in that 
very city by an angel and eaten up by worms 
(X11.23). They were surrounded by tribunes and 


208 THE PRIMITIVE CHOURGH 


by the principal men of the city. On the order of 
Festus, Paul was brought in. The governor intro- 
duced Paul as the man, whom the whole multitude 
accused and considered unworthy to live, but in 
whom he found nothing worthy of death; he had ap- 
pealed to Czsar and Festus had decided to send 
him. Yet he was troubled about the appeal, because 
there was no case or at least no conviction, and he 
was at a loss to know how he would word his letter 
to Cesar without giving positive facts. He there- 
fore brought him before the gathering and especially 
before king Agrippa in order that a fresh examina- 
tion might bring out facts for him to write about. 
Festus realized the foolishness of his position in send- 
ing a man to be judged by the highest tribunal with- 
out even specifying what the corpus delicti was. 
Agrippa invited Paul to speak in his own defence. 
This furnished him the unexpected opportunity to 
give an account of his life, conversion, and calling. 
Christ had foretold to Paul that he would preach His 
name before kings (1 X.15); here was the first chance 
and he eagerly seized it; he addressed Agrippa, who 
for his accurate knowledge of the law is even praised 
inthe Talmud. Without flattery or lie he captivated 
the benevolence of the king. His eloquent account 
of his early life as a pharisee and as a pérsecutor of 
the Church, of his conversion and of his work as an 
Apostle, made a deep impression on some, but it left 
Festus indifferent. Festus interrupted Paul and cried 
out in a loud voice: Paul, thou art beside thyself; 
much learning doth make thee mad (XXVI.24). 


PAUL IN PRISON* AT! CASSAREA: ° 209 


Festus was a heathen; Paul’s exposition of Christ’s 
passion and resurrection, his vision, his ardor in 
speaking of mysteries, which he could not understand, 
appeared to him as so many expressions of a diseased 
brain. Paul is treated as his Master was before him. 
He denied the charge and claimed that his were words 
of truth and soberness; he appealed for confirmation 
of all he had said to the king; the facts in his case 
could not be hidden from him, for they were not done 
in a corner but in clear daylight to the knowledge of 
all. Paul then abruptly asked the king whether he 
believed the prophets; he anticipated his answer and 
said: I know that thou believest (27). Paul argued 
that if he believed the prophets, he had to believe in 
Christ. Agrippa answered: In a little thou persuad- 
est me to be a Christian (28). Paul’s argument 
had made some impression on the king; the Apostle 
expressed the hope that all who heard him might 
be entirely convinced, as he himself was, but the 
teaching of the gospel did not sufficiently appeal to 
an incestuous king in the midst of all that pomp. 
Notwithstanding that, Paul wished his conversion 
without desiring for him or any one else to be treated 
as he was; Paul was chained while delivering his 
speech. Agrippa, the governor, Bernice, and the 
councillors rose and discussed the case among them- 
selves. They all agreed that Paul had done nothing 
worthy of death or of bands. Agrippa expressed the 
verdict of all to Festus: This man might have been 
set at liberty, if he had not appealed to Cesar (32). 
Agrippa’s conclusion was indeed a lame one. Paul 


210 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


should have been freed and the appeal would have 
fallen, but the king did not wish to offend the Jews 
by freeing him; to please them he ordered that Paul 
be sent as a prisoner to Cesar. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH 
PAUL ON HIS WAY TO ROME 


Festus the governor of Syria followed the judgment 
of Agrippa and Paul was to be sent to Rome. He 
was placed in the custody of the centurion Julius, 
who would be his guard on the long journey. Paul 
had two of his disciples as companions—Luke the 
writer of the Acts, and Aristarchus, a Macedonian 
convert. In those days there was no regular passen- 
ger service between Italy and Asia Minor; they had 
to wait for a merchantman. A coasting ship from 
Adrumetum had arrived at Czsarea, and Paul with 
his companions was put on board of it. The voyage 
was begun in the fall of 60. The next day they an- 
chored at Sidon; Julius treated Paul very courteously 
and allowed him to land to see his friends and take 
care of himself. After unloading and loading they 
set sail in a northerly direction along the coast of 
Cyprus leaving the island to the left, because the 
winds were contrary. They came to Lystra the home 
of Timothy. The centurion here found a ship bound 
for Italy, and removed his prisoners into it. Owing 
to head winds they made very little progress for sev- 
eral days; they came to a promontory then known as 


Gnidus, the extremity of Asia Minor, and moved in 
211 


212 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the direction of Crete. Coasting along the island 
they came to a place called Good-havens, in the south 
of Crete. Much time had elapsed since they weighed 
anchor at Cesarea, and navigation now was danger- 
ous. The great fast of the Jews was passed, which 
shows that it was then towards the end of September 
60, after the autumnal equinox. With the ancients 
navigation then came to an end and was not resumed 
until the middle of March. 

Paul after a long experience knew something of the 
dangers of the sea (2 Cor. X1.26). Speaking rather 
by divine inspiration than from observation, he 
warned his fellow travelers of the dangers ahead, not 
only for lading and ship but for their own safety. In 
a question so important for a prisoner to be allowed 
to give his advice showed that Paul had gained the 
greatest confidence of his companions. The pilot, 
however, and the owner of the ship were of a dif- 
ferent opinion and it carried more weight with the 
centurion than Paul’s. The majority thought best to 
reach Phenice, if possible, and winter there; in this 
port they would be protected against the prevailing 
western winds. With a light southern breeze blow- 
ing they proceeded and kept close to the island. 
Soon after they encountered a typhoon, a strong 
north-easterly wind that drove them out to sea. 
From the description given by the inspired writer 
(X XVII) who was in it, it must have been a fearful 
storm that drove them off the small island of Cauda. 
They tried to manipulate the ship as well as they 
could; they cast overboard whatever seemed a hin- 


PAUL ON HIS WAY TO ROME — 213 


drance; there was now fear of being driven on a sand- 
bank. No sun or star had been seen for several days; 
they had no compass to guide them, all hope of sav- 
ing their lives was abandoned, says St. Luke. In 
such weather no food could be prepared and all had 
to submit to a prolonged fast. In those dreadful cir- 
cumstances, Paul stood in the midst of them and told 
them that if they had followed his advice they would 
have prevented all this harm and loss, but he invited 
them all to be of good cheer. He foretold them the 
destruction of the ship, but also the safety of each 
one of them. He explained a vision he had during 
the preceding night: ‘An angel of the God to whom 
I belong and whom | serve stood by me and said to 
me: ‘Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before 
Cxsar; and behold God hath given thee all them that 
sail with thee” (XXVII.24). He repeated that 
they should be of good cheer and that they would 
come to a certain island. 

The fourteenth night had now come; they were 
sailing in the Adria sea, not in the Adriatic between 
Italy and Dalmatia, but that part of the Mediter- 
ranean between Italy, Greece and Africa, which the 
ancients so called: it was about midnight. The ship- 
men suspected that they were near land; their deli- 
cate ears had perhaps heard the noise of the raging 
waves beating the coast. To make sure they sounded 
and found 20 fathoms: a little while later they found 
only 15. With this sudden rise they had reason to 
fear that the violence of the storm would soon throw 
the ship on the rocks and cause it to be broken up, 


214 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


and that in the middle of the night. To prevent this 
they cast out four anchors from the stern. The ship- 
men did not trust to the anchors with the ship under 
the wind and so near shore. They were preparing to 
let down the life boat under pretext to cast out some 
more anchors from the bow, when Paul said to the 
centurion and to the soldiers (there were 276 men on 
board): Except these stay in the ship you cannot be 
saved (31). Paul told this to the centurion and to 
the soldiers, not to the pilot or to the master, because 
these were in league with the other shipmen. God 
indeed had promised that no one would perish, but 
under the tacit condition that all human means 
should be exhausted. The soldiers appreciated Paul’s 
warning. They cut off the ropes of the boat, and let 
it fall down and drift away. At dawn Paul besought 
them all to take some food; they had been fasting for 
two weeks and needed new strength for the struggle 
that was to follow; he promised them again that not 
a hair would fall from their head and that all would 
be saved. Paul set the example, and first saying 
grace he began to eat bread. Feeling now reassured 
they all followed his example. After the meal they 
cast the wheat into the sea in order to lighten the 
boat; the cargo was thrown overboard before this, 
now the provisions went, which for 276 men must 
have made quite a weight. 

It took some time to take a meal and lighten the 
ship, but then the shipmen could examine the coast 
at their leisure; it was now day. They did not know 
the land, but they noticed the mouth of a creek, now 


PAUL ON HIS WAY TO ROME 215 


called St. Paul’s Bay, on the north-east coast of 
Malta. They thought of running the ship up its 
sandy shores; they raised the anchors, loosened the 
rudderbands, hoisted the topsail on the foremast, so 
as to force the big ship farther ashore. The forepart 
stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern 
was exposed to the violence of wind and sea, and was 
fast being broken up. 

Another difficulty now presented itself. What was 
to be done with the prisoners? because they might 
swim ashore and escape. The soldiers’ counsel was 
that they should be killed; the centurion prevented 
this, Paul one of his prisoners ranked too high in his 
estimation. He ordered therefore that those who 
could swim should swim ashore first; of the others 
some were carried ashore on boards, others saved 
themselves with other parts of the wreckage. 

The inspired history of this voyage and of the ship- 
wreck of St. Paul is most interesting in its minute 
details, many of which are borne out by contempo- 
rary writers. In his second letter to the Corinthians 
Paul writes that he was shipwrecked three times, but 
as the letter was written before this occurrence, Paul 
was in reality wrecked four times. 

All soon found out that they were safely landed 
on the island of Malta. Providence had directed this 
course of events for the good of the Maltese. Paul 
and his co-workers converted them and gave them 
Publius for their first bishop. A constant tradition 
there enables us to admit that Paul baptized all 
his ship companions. The faith was implanted so 


216 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


strongly on the island that it did not fail even under 
the domination of the Moors. The Barbarians 
showed great courtesy towards the shipwrecked. 
The sacred writer calls the inhabitants of Malta Bar- 
barians, because they did not speak Greek or Latin, 
and were of African origin. At that time they were 
under the dominion of Rome and belonged to the 
province of Sicily. The hospitable barbarians kin- 
dled a wood fire, and led the 276 shipwrecked into a 
huge building, where they could dry their clothes and 
warm themselves. Paul again gave proof of his 
strenuous activity, humanity and humility by gather- 
ing a bundle of sticks himself. He had not noticed 
the presence of a viper in the bundle, the cold had 
benumbed it. When he put the sticks on the fire, 
the viper revived and fastened on his hand. The 
barbarians saw this, and as they knew that Paul was 
a prisoner, they concluded among themselves that he 
was a murderer, and that divine vengeance did not 
suffer him to live; they looked upon the bite of a 
viper as sure death. Paul meanwhile shook off the 
beast into the fire, and no harm was done to him 
(XXVIII). The onlookers expected that the bitten 
hand would swell, and Paul would fall down sud- 
denly and die. Seeing that he was not hurt they 
changed their minds and concluded that he was a 
god. 

Publius, the chief man of the island, owned ex- 
tensive property in that section. He entertained 
Paul, Luke, Aristarchus and perhaps the centurion 
very courteously for three days. Publius’ father lay 


PAUL ON HIS WAY TO ROME — 217 


sick of a fever, and of a bloody flux. Paul came in 
to the sick man, prayed, laid his hands on him, and 
miraculously cured him. The report of this miracle 
soon spread over the whole island, and all who were 
afflicted with disease came to Paul and were cured. 
A grateful people bestowed great honors on Paul and 
his companions, and provided all that was necessary 
for the voyage. | 

After a three months’ stay on Malta, probably in 
the beginning of February 61, more than a month 
before navigation generally opened with the ancients, 
they found a ship from Alexandria that had wintered 
in the island, ready to set sail for Italy. Its sign 
was that of the Castors—Castor and Pollux—who 
were the usual protectors of the shipmen. The sail- 
ors in olden times placed their ships under the pro- 
tection of the gods, whose image the Pheenicians en- 
graved at the bow, and the Alexandrians painted or 
engraved on both sides of the stern. 

They set sail for Syracuse, where they remained 
for three days. Sicily had received the faith from 
St. Peter as also its first bishops. Ancient writers 
tell us that the bishop of Syracuse received Paul with 
unspeakable joy; Paul in his bands was looked upon 
as a glorious champion of the faith. For three days 
he was the guest of bishop Marcianus, and undoubt- 
edly did for the cause of Christ all he could. 

Compassing by the shore, the ship again made for 
the land, in a small inlet betwen Taormina and Mes- 
sina, about ten miles from the latter city. An an- 
cient tradition places the landing of St. Paul near 


218 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the spot where later St. Placid built his monastery, 
on a hill overlooking the bay. A contrary wind was 
probably the cause of this diversion. In sight of 
Messina they then crossed over to the mainland— 
to Reggio in Calabria. Luke is silent on many points 
of interest; he does not mention the conversion of the 
people of Reggio on Paul’s visit, short as it was, only 
one day. Old documents of the same century, writ- 
ten in Greek and afterwards translated into Latin, 
and preserved in the diocesan archives of Reggio at- 
test that Paul instructed and baptized many, and 
left them Stephen as first bishop. Stephen was one 
of Paul’s companions on this trip and hailed from 
Nicea. He continued the work begun by Paul, and 
in one of the early persecutions died a martyr after 
a glorious profession of faith, together with the 
three saintly women Agnes, Felicitas, and Perpetua. 
Many other illustrations are given in these docu- 
ments of Paul’s miracles and zeal. 

From Reggio assisted by a most favorable wind 
they covered the great distance to the bay of Naples 
in one day. The bay was then called the Bay of 
Pozzuoli. This was the port for ships from the Ori- 
ent to Italy, especially for freighters bringing in 
wheat from Alexandria, as Seneca and Suetonius at- 
test. The Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us that 
the busy port of Pozzuoli had attracted many Jews. 
No wonder that Paul went at once in search of the 
brethren, that is, the Jews converted to Christ. Tra- 
dition has it that Pozzuoli was visited by another 
Apostle—St. Peter—about the year 42 or 44 on his 


PAUL ON HIS WAY TO ROME 219 


way from the east to Rome and that he had cele- 
brated the holy mysteries there. At the request of 
the faithful Paul was allowed to tarry with them for 
seven days; he must have gained great confidence 
with the centurion to obtain that permission. The 
sacred writer does not give us any details of Paul’s 
work in Pozzuoli; the tireless worker did here what 
he had done everywhere else. 

The last stretch of the journey now began; it was 
to be made by land. There were two roads from 
Pozzuoli to Rome; one via Capua and thence by the 
Appian Way, the other followed the coast to Gaeta 
and then at Terracina joined the first. The Acts do 
not inform us by what road Paul went, but an old 
Greek manuscript edited by Tischendorf informs us 
that he went to Baja and thence to Terracina. The 
direction of the Appian Way near Rome is well 
known; from the Capena gate between the Celius and 
the Aventine it goes towards the Alban mountains 
and then enters the Pontine marches. On this road 
we find the two stations mentioned in the Acts—the 
forum Appii and the Three Taverns. The first was 
about 43 miles from Rome on the Appian way and 
the other 23. The road at the time of St. Paul was 
in a horrible condition on account of the very fre- 
quent inundations; it remained in bad shape until 
Trajan raised the level. Both Strabo and Horace 
have left us an unfavorable description of it. Paul 
may have been compelled to go part of the way by 
boat, as the poet had done before him. 

During the seven days Paul spent at Pozzuoli, a 


220 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


messenger could easily reach Rome to apprise the 
faithful of his early arrival. Many of them went out 
to meet him as far as the places we have mentioned. 
They were most anxious to see the great Apostle, 
from whom they had received such an interesting let- 
ter about three years before, but they never expected 
to meet him in the condition of a prisoner bound in 
chains. The sight impressed St. Paul; he thanked 
God and took courage. Another Apostle had con- 
verted the Romans, whom Paul saw before him; their 
devotion and noble sentiments excited in him a great 
desire to have a share in the conversion of the others. 
Peter had come to Rome in the reign of Claudius, 
but he was not there in 61 when Paul arrived, nor 
was he there in 58, when Paul wrote his letter to the 
Romans. In the first year of Nero, the Jews who had 
been expelled by Claudius began to return to the cap- 
ital. Recent discoveries of Jewish cemeteries prove 
that the Jews were numerous in Rome in its imperial 
days. 

The Acts tell us that Paul was permitted to dwell 
by himself, but under a military guard. The cen- 
turion must have handed him over to the governor 
of the military camp and we may suppose that Paul 
had his lodgings nearby. This fortified camp had 
been built by Tiberius for an imperial bodyguard of 
10,000 men. The present military barracks have re- 
placed the old camp of the Pretorian guards, who 
were disbanded by Constantine. The camp was a 
little beyond the present railway terminal station. 

The favorable reports of Festus and of the cen- 


PAUL ON HIS WAY TO ROME 221 


turion Julius had secured for Paul his partial liberty ; 
and he had many friends even in Nero's palace, as 
their greetings to the Philippians show (IV.22). 
He stopped for a while with a friend, perhaps with 
Aquila his host at Corinth, who had preceded him to 
Rome (Rom. XVI.3) but always under military 
guard, which means in the language of those days 
that Paul’s left arm was chained to the right arm of 
a soldier. The first three days after his arrival were 
devoted to the Christians, who had received him so 
lovingly and whom he longed to see (Rom. 1.11). He 
found that all things appertaining to religion had 
been wisely arranged by Peter, and therefore he con- 
secrated, as usual, his first labors to the Jews. He 
thought it prudent to approach them first, because 
they might be interested in the suit pending against 
him. As he was not allowed to go to their syna- 
gogue, he invited the chief of the Jews to his own 
hired lodging. He desired to address them in order 
to remove their possible prejudiced opinions, that 
might prove obstacles to their conversion, and to ex- 
plain his own unenviable position. He denied any 
guilt against the Jewish race, and added that he was 
forced to appeal and professed his affection for them. 
Paul suspected that he had been accused and calum- 
niated with them, but he was mistaken. The Jews 
claimed that they never had heard anything disparag- 
ing of him, either by letter or from a visitor. They 
expressed a desire to hear him, for they had learned 
that this sect—the Christian Religion—was being 
contradicted everywhere. They agreed upon a day 


208 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


for a meeting, at which very many assisted and which 
lasted a whole day. Paul proved to them from 
Moses and the Prophets that Jesus was the Messiah. 
After a long debate some believed, but others did not. 
Before they departed without agreeing Paul made 
only one more remark, and it was that whereas they 
as a nation would not hear, the word of salvation had 
been sent to the Gentiles, who would hear. Upon 
this the Jews left and continued quarreling among 
themselves. 

Paul remained for two years in his hired lodging, 
received all who came to him, preached with confi- 
dence and without restraint the kingdom of God, 
and taught all about the Lord Jesus Christ. We have 
had occasion to remark that Paul from prison wrote 
several of his letters, and continued his interest in the 
churches, which he had founded. Baronius, the great 
historian, thinks that as Paul’s case concerned reli- 
gious matters, Nero gave it over to the pagan priests, 
who in their hatred of the Jews dismissed it. 

Luke here ends the inspired history of the Primi- 
tive Church in year 63, in the fifth year of Nero, after 
two years of Paul’s imprisonment. From now on we 
must be guided by the writings of St. John, and the 
epistles of Peter and Paul, that are posterior to that 
date, and to history as related by uninspired human 
historians, and subjected to strict criticism. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH 
PETER AND PAUL IN ROME AND THEIR MARTYRDOM 


Pau had been freed by Nero, or as he explained 
it to his beloved disciple Timothy, he had been de- 
livered out of the mouth of the lion. We have at- 
tributed his deliverance to the letter of Festus, gov- 
ernor of Judea, who had stated that neither he, nor 
his predecessor, nor the tribune, could find Paul 
guilty of any offence. Tacitus gives us another rea- 
son. A public demonstration had been offered Nero 
on the restoration of his health, and perhaps to cover 
over by a humane act the horrible deed of killing his 
dwn mother—Agrippina—an amnesty was granted 
on that occasion to Paul and his fellow prisoners. 

History does not tell us in detail what happened 
between the recovery of his freedom and his return to 
Rome to be cast into prison again, previous to his 
execution. Paul evidently had not anticipated this 
turn of affairs, when he wrote his letter to the Ro- 
mans. He had told them (XV.24) that he intended 
to go to Spain and that on the way he hoped to see 
them. We may suppose that after securing his free- 
dom he carried out his original plan and went to 
Spain. The fact that the bishop and father of the 


faithful in Spain had been beheaded by Herod in 
223 


224 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Jerusalem may have inspired the destre of preaching 
the Gospel there and of taking St. James’ place with 
his orphaned children. The oldest records tell us that 
in 64 Paul was in Spain. On his way out he had 
Philemon, Timothy and other disciples as compan- 
ions. Sergius Paul, of whom we treated before when 
he was proconsul of Cyprus (Acts XIII.7) and who 
after his conversion had been made bishop of Nar- 
bonne, accompanied Paul to Spain. Several disci- 
ples of Paul are ranked among the martyrs of the 
Primitive Church in Spain. Ancient writers inform 
us that after his first imprisonment in Rome, Paul 
revisited his dear converts of Syria, Asia, Macedonia, 
and Greece, as he himself had expressed that wish in 
his letter to the Philippians and to Philemon. After 
that he returned to Rome to assist Peter in his fight 
against Simon the Magician and against Nero. 

Peter came to Rome for the first time about the 
year 42. How often he left the city and returned the 
Acts do not say, but he returned there a last time 
shortly before his death under Nero. Peter was ab- 
sent when Paul arrived as a prisoner in 61. Pro- 
fessor Marucchi, the renowned archeologist, from 
whom we borrow these details, admits that Peter was 
there in 64, at the time of the terrible persecution of 
Nero, because in his letter he makes allusion to Rome 
as Babylon. The fearful conflagration, that de- 
stroyed a great part of the city in July 64, was the oc- 
casion of the persecution; Jews and Christians were 
at that time considered as one class, although all 
Christians had not been Jews. Suspicion for causing 


PETER AND PAUL IN ROME papep 


the fire fell upon the Jews, who in turn threw the 
blame on the Christians and claimed that they had 
nothing in common with the new religion. ‘Tacitus 
has left us a vivid description of Nero’s ferociousness 
in burning alive the first martyrs in his gardens of 
the Vatican. He says: Nero added mockery to in- 
sult for those about to die. Covered with animal 
skins they were to be torn to pieces by wild dogs, or 
nailed to crosses, or burned alive to light up a dark 
night. St. Clement in his letter to the Corinthians 
writes of Christian heroines, exposed barbarously to 
ferocious tortures, such as described in pagan my- 
thology. The persecution lasted up to 68 when Nero 
died; it was not limited to Rome but extended also 
to the provinces. Peter had survived the tempest of 
64, as is certain from certain expressions in his let- 
ter. 

There are various opinions concerning the year of 
the martyrdom of Peter and Paul; but most writers 
adhere to the year 67 for the following reasons. St. 
Jerome attests that Seneca died two years before the 
Apostles, and from Tacitus we learn that Nero’s 
teacher ended his life during the consulate of Silius 
Nerva and Atticus Vestino, in 65. 

There is no certainty in regard to the exact date. 
In the fourth century the feast of their martyrdom 
was kept on the 29 of June. Possibly this may have 
been the date of the translation of their relics to the 
Appian Way. 

There are no contemporary and authentic acts con- 
cerning the martyrdom of the two Apostles. There 


226 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


are, however, most ancient traditions carefully re- 
corded in the days of peace and that have come down 
to us. These traditions attest as an undeniable his- 
torical fact the coming of the two Apostles to Rome, 
their foundation of the Roman church, and their 
glorious martyrdom under Nero. It is certain that 
in the second century the faithful had a written ver- 
sion of the passion of Peter. The tradition concern- 
ing the manner of their death must be considered as 
authentic. Paul was a Roman citizen; an ignomin- 
ious death in his case was not permissible. The Gos- 
pel of St. John makes clear allusion to the crucifixion 
of Peter, and as Origen attests, it was a well known 
fact that he was crucified head down. 

The two Apostles did not suffer martyrdom on the ~ 
same spot. Paul was beheaded about three miles 
from Rome near the Ardea Road, left of the way to 
Ostia. The place is now called Tre Fontane, or the 
Three Fountains, and owes its name to an ancient 
tradition that Paul’s head after being severed from 
the body made three distinct leaps, the exact spots 
being marked by three fountains that welled forth. 

Where we have a constant and uniform tradition 
in regard to the place of Paul’s martyrdom, various 
learned opinions are held even now in regard to the 
spot where Peter was crucified. Some hold that the 
Vatican hill was the spot; others believe the Janicu- 
lus to be the place. The most ancient tradition fa- 
vors the Vatican; it attests that he was martyred 
near Nero’s palace before the obelisk. The descrip- 
tion given indicates the stadium or the circus in the 


PETER AND PAUL IN ROME 227 


villa of Nero, generally called in the documents 
Nero’s palace. The obelisk remained in its original 
place up to the time of Sixtus V (1585-1590), when 
it was removed to the grand piazza in front of St. 
Peter’s Basilica, where it is to-day. In recent cen- 
turies an opinion has been expressed in favor of the 
Janiculus, on the very spot where we admire the 
round little church, planned by Bramante, but it does 
not rest upon any ancient documents. 

The most authentic monuments of the Apostles are 
undoubtedly the two sepulchres of the Vatican and 
of the Appian Way. They were well known in the 
second century. Cajus, one of the great historical 
authorities of that day, wrote the following words as 
a refutation to some heretics: “I can show you the 
trophies of the Apostles, whether you go to the Vati- 
can or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of 
those who founded this Church.”’ These tombs could 
not but be recognized by all for the inscriptions they 
bore. In the days of Constantine the historian 
Eusebius said that the fact of the death of the two 
Apostles is spendidly confirmed by their monuments 
in the Roman cemeteries. In the fourth century 
Optatus of Milevi quotes against the Donatists the 
memories of the Apostles, which in the language of 
that time means their tombs. Towards the end of 
the same century St. Jerome speaks of the tomb of 
St. Peter as of a monument venerated on the Vatican 
by the whole Christian world. Prudentius, the great 
Christian poet in the beginning of the fifth century, 
indicates with precision the place of the two tombs 


228 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


on the two opposite sides of the Tiber. Besides these 
authentic and genuine evidences there are many 
more, such as the grand basilicas built by Constan- 
tine on the two sacred spots, the itineraries of the 
pilgrims, the sepulchral inscriptions, etc. 

All these documents attest the universal conviction 
of the Christian world that the two tombs were pre- 
cisely on the same spots where we venerate them to- 
day, on the Vatican and on the Ostian Way. 

The two primitive tombs of the Apostles were, like 
all others, outside of the city, and formed little com- 
partments in the property of a Christian; these were 
selected because of their proximity to the place of 
their death. Of the original rooms nothing is left, as 
both were taken into the splendid basilicas built over 
them. 

The many tomb inscriptions found in the excava- 
tions for the new basilica prove that the area, in 
which St. Peter’s tomb was found, was a burial 
ground in the imperial days. That area began to be 
used in 64 as a cemetery for the martyrs under Nero. 
It is quite natural that Peter himself should be buried 
there, as his successors were up to 202. In that year 
the bishops of Rome selected for their official burial 
place the cemetery of Callixtus; that of the Vatican 
had become too small. Discoveries of sarcophagi at 
the time of the excavations for the new basilica in the 
seventeenth century, and among them that of St. 
Linus, the immediate successor of St. Peter, which 
had for an inscription only the name Linus, prove 
that the first bishops of Rome were buried there. 


PETERVAND PAULIN ROME 229 


The tomb with the precious relics had to be 
guarded against the invasion of the barbarians in the 
fifth century. It was thoroughly covered and hid- 
den in 846, when the Saracens besieged Rome. After 
that date it has never been exposed again. In 1592 
Pope Clement VIII accompanied by two Cardinals, 
one of whom was the famous Cardinal Bellarmini, 
had an opening made and saw the sarcophagus of 
Peter with the gold cross of Constantine on it; for 
fear of profanation he ordered the opening closed at 
once. It is to-day hidden under the grottoes of the 
present basilica. 

The body of St. Paul was buried in a field owned 
by a pious Roman matron named Lucina, on the 
Ostian Way, a little more than a mile from the city’s 
gate. Fr. Grisar, another learned archeologist, tells 
us that the first basilica was built over the spot by 
Constantine; Emperor Valentinian II replaced it in 
386 by a larger one, which corresponds exactly with 
the lines of the present basilica, built after the fire 
of 1823. 

These two imposing structures are enduring monu- 
ments of the death of the two Apostles in Rome. It 
is possible that their remains have been temporarily 
moved, but it is certain that Linus, the immediate 
successor of Peter and the others of the first century 
were buried near the body of Blessed Peter on the 
Vatican Hill. 

After the peace of Constantine these tombs grad- 
ually became objects of greater veneration. To- 
wards the end of the fourth century Damasus 


230 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


adorned them with metrical inscriptions. The trans- 
lation of one of these is as follows: If you wish to 
know, Peter and Paul have been here. We confess 
that these Apostles came to us from the Orient, but 
having shed their blood for Jesus Christ they became 
Romans, and Rome merited to keep the bodies of its 
citizens. 

It would be hard to indicate the various places of 
temporary residence of St. Peter while in Rome, nor 
does history register the vicissitudes of the episcopal 
chair of Peter, as now preserved in the greatest church 
of Christendom. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH 
THE INSPIRED WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 


PROMINENT figures in the history of the Primitive 
Church were the inspired writers, who under the in- 
fluence and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, left us a 
summary of the whole Christian faith and practice. 
In the four gospels they give us the life and the work 
of its author—Jesus Christ—the Saviour of the 
world; in the other parts they show the fulfilment 
of the mission intrusted by Christ to the Apostles, 
and the prophetic mission of the Church in the 
course of ages up to the end of time. 

We add a brief notice of each author and a short 
review of his writings in the order that his name 
appears in the sacred volume beginning with the 
Gospels. 


ST. MATTHEW 


Matthew, also called Levi, was a Jew and a 
Galilean. He was receiver of public money, when 
Christ called him to the apostolate. He lived at 
Capharnaum near the sea of Tiberias. His office 
made him hateful to the Jews, with whom publican 
and sinner were synonymous. The reason of this 


hatred must be found in the fact that these office- 
231 


oe THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


holders were either Gentiles, or Jews who connived in 
4 social and business manner with the Roman tyrants 
of Palestine. The Jews at that time had to pay to 
the Romans a head tax and a property tax; in addi- 
tion to that they had to pay for a permit to the public 
pastures, tithes on their crops, and custom duties on 
imports and exports. The publicans, less con- 
tumacious and less proud than the pharisees were 
more likely candidates for conversion. 

The Gospel according to St. Matthew is the first 
book of the New Testament and also the first in the 
order of its composition. It was originally written 
in Aramaic, then the vernacular of the Jews. St 
Matthew wrote in Palestine most probably before the 
expulsion of the Apostles from the Holy City in the 
year 42 during the persecution of Herod Agrippa. 
He wrote for the Palestine converts from Judaism, 
especially for those who lived in and around Jeru- 
salem. 

His purpose was above all to show that Jesus is the 
promised Messiah, in an historico-apologetic way, 
greatly differing in that respect from the rather 
dogmatic method of St. John in his Gospel. Mat- 
thew gives us the active rather than the contempla- 
tive part in the life of Jesus, and more precepts for 
righteous living. 

The argument or the subject matter concerns the 
origin and the hidden life of Christ, His public life, 
His preaching, and His miracles up to the time of 
His Ascension, which he does not mention. 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT 233 


ST. MARK ., 


The name of Mark has frequently occurred in the 
preceding chapters. He was chiefly the interpreter 
of Peter, although he had also been a disciple of Paul, 
and under his two chiefs was a great missionary. 
Some have contended that in the Acts two persons 
of the same name are mentioned, but it is more prob- 
able that the same person is designated. There is 
no doubt as to the authorship of the second Gos- 
pel. 

The most ancient writers tell us that Mark 
wrote in Rome, chiefly for the Romans what he had 
learned from the lips of Peter. This explains how in 
recording the preaching of Peter, many facts are 
omitted that would tend to the glory and the honor 
of the author’s chief, showing on the one hand 
absence of flattery on the part of Mark, and on the 
other great humility on the part of Peter. 

There is a great difference of opinion as to what 
precise time this gospel was written, ranging from the 
year 42 to the year 96, whether during the lifetime of 
Peter or not, is not known for certain. Mark as an 
introduction begins with the baptism of John the 
Baptist, the baptism of Christ and His retreat into the 
desert. Then he gives us the public ministry 
of Christ in Galilee, and in and around Jerusalem, 
and finally His Resurrection and Ascension. He 
insists with emphasis upon the formation of the 
Apostles. 


234 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 
Sel OM ge 


Luke was a companion and co-laborer of Paul. In 
a letter of Paul (Col. I[V.14) he is called a physician. 
Luke was not a Jew by birth; he was an Antiochian, 
who probably learned the Christian religion from and 
was baptized by Paul or Barnabas. Some have 
thought that Luke was one of the 72 disciples and that 
he was one of the two disciples of Emmaus, but this 
is not likely. He says himself that he received from 
the Apostles what he conveys in his Gospel; he did 
not see Christ. Luke was among the four evan- 
gelists the best versed in the Greek language; he wrote 
rather for Greeks than for Hebrews; being a physician 
he must have had the advantages of a more classical 
education. Some writers include in his education 
Syrian and Aramaic, grammar, poetry, and rhetoric. 
Luke merited the praises of St. Paul (2 Cor. VIII.18). 

Luke is reported to have been a renowned painter; 
the oldest painting of the Mother of God is ascribed 
to him. 

There is no absolute certainty as to where and how 
Luke died, and where he wrote his Gospel; he wrote 
it in the year 63. It was addressed to one Theophilus, 
although not intended for him alone, but for the 
universal Church. There are no other indications 
who this Theophilus was. 

The purpose of Luke’s writing was, as the Venerable 
Bede thinks, to offset the many apocryphal gospels 
that were being circulated then, such as gospels under 
the name of Thomas, Matthias, or the twelve Apos- 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT 235 


tles. Luke furnishes information, not given in the 
two previous Gospels, concerning the infancy and 
childhood of Christ and John the Baptist, the conver- 
sion of Mary Magdalen, Zaccheus, and one of the two 
thieves on the cross, the parable of the Pharisee and 
the Publican, of the lost sheep, of the prodigal son, 
showing forth especially the mercy of Christ towards 
sinners and suffering humanity. 

Luke is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles, 
which have formed the basis of the history of the 
Primitive Church in the preceding chapters. 


ST. JOHN 


St. John wrote his Gospel in Greek, towards the 
end of his life, after his return from exile on Patmos. 
His chief purpose in writing it was to refute the ris- 
ing heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus, who denied the 
divinity of Christ, and also to supply what the three 
other evangelists had omitted, as regards especially 
Christ’s deeds in the first year of his public life. 
John the Evangelist is compared with the eagle, which 
in its flight attains greater heights than the other 
birds. John alone treats professedly of the divinity 
of Christ, of the eternal birth of the Word, of eternity, 
‘of the procession and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
The Gospel of St. John concludes the written word of 
God, for in the order of its composition it is the 
last of the New Testament. 

In 160 the four gospels were essentially as we now 


236 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


read them; the autographs of the evangelists did not 
survive the early years of the Church. 

In the Holy Bible we have three inspired epistles 
of St. John; there is no longer any doubt about their 
author. 

In his first epistle he teaches us true faith, hope, 
and charity—Faith in the Holy Trinity and in the 
Incarnation, which he explains in his Gospel and in 
his epistles in a more sublime way than any of the 
inspired writers. He fills us with hope, while he 
reminds us of the love of the Father, who segregated 
us from the children of the devil, that we might be 
called and be in reality children of God. The whole 
letter breathes the most ardent love. In it at the 
same time he refutes the errors of those who denied 
the divinity of Christ or His real humanity; he rejects 
the error of those who claim that besides faith no 
other good works are necessary. 

This letter was addressed like those of James, 
Peter and Jude to all the faithful. In the beginning 
of the letter John does not mention his name, as the 
other inspired letter writers generally do, with the 
exception of Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. John 
wrote these letters in his old age, as is clear from the 
terms he uses—calling himself the ancient and the 
faithful his little children, and justly so. He was by 
profession the oldest of all Christians; he was the 
last survivor of the Apostles. 

His second letter was probably addressed to a lady 
named Electa. Some have thought that Electa may 
have been an epithet applied to a particular church, 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT 237 


such as the chosen church of the Corinthians, which 
John salutes in the name of the chosen church of 
Ephesus. Others surmise that the Electas mentioned 
in the letter were sisters not by blood, but in spirit 
and in faith, disciples of the same master, probably of 
St. John himself. In either way, the instructions 
given by St. John are lessons to those especially who 
from their connections, situation, or condition in life 
are in danger of perversion. 

John’s third letter is addressed to one Galus, per- 
haps the one whom we have met with Paul at Corinth. 
John praises him for his hospitality towards the faith- 
ful pilgrims and blames Diotrephis for just the re- 
verse. He proclaims the praises of the first in his 
own name and in the name of all the faithful, and 
expresses the wish to meet him soon. 

St. John also wrote the Apocalypse, the last book 
of the Bible. He composed it on the island of Pat- 
mos, to which he had been exiled under emperor 
Domitian, the successor of Titus, the destroyer of 
Jerusalem. It was written about 25 years after the 
destruction of the Holy City, in the year 97, two years 
before he wrote his Gospel and four years before his 
death. 

There are many opinions concerning the subject 
matter of this prophetic book. Some think that it 
portrays the perpetual warfare between good and 
wicked and the final destiny of both. Others think 
with far more likelihood that it describes a few of 
the chief events affecting the Church in the course 
of ages, and especially at the end of the world. 


233 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


The writer’s purpose was to animate the faithful 
of his day and all others to constancy in suffering, at 
the sight of all the tortures under Domitian and other 
persecutors to follow. He warns them to be mindful 
of the glory of the Martyrs, the Virgins, and all the 
Blessed, and of the eternal damnation of the wicked. 

When John was. at Patmos, many heresies and 
abuses had arisen in the churches of Asia. In his 
Apocalypse as in his Gospel he corrects these abuses 
and shows the absurdity of heresy. 

The Apocalypse is of all the books of Holy Scrip- 
ture the most obscure and the hardest to explain, be- 
cause it is full of symbols and enigmas, and because 
its prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. 


Spats 


The Acts of the Apostles are for the greater part 
concerned with the apostolic labors of St. Paul, and 
form the inspired history of the Primitive Church. 
Paul was not only a great preacher but also a great 
writer. In the Bible we have 14 of his epistles. It 
is most likely that one or more have been lost. These 
epistles treat both of faith and of morals. The first 
part of nearly all is dogmatic and concerns questions 
of faith; the second part is ethical and concerns the 
morals of the faithful. All mysteries of faith may be 
found in these letters. He insists chiefly upon the 
divine economy of grace and proves that Christ is 
our only Redeemer, from Whom we must beg and 
expect every grace, all justice, and life eternal. Then 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT = 239 


he shows that all Jewish ceremonies have been abro- 
gated by the law of Christ. Finally he warns all to 
beware of heresy, which at that early period, began 
to sprout. Paul and all the other Apostles had been 
sent by Christ to promulgate, explain and inculcate 
whatever concerned redemption and salvation, all 
things unknown to the world but necessary for all. 
He combated especially the Jewish works and cere- 
monies, that were not Christian, as in his epistles to 
the Romans, the Galatians, the Philippians and the 
Hebrews. In the others he uproots rising heresies, 
such as of Simon the Magician, Menander, the Gnos- 
tics and others, who were also exposed by Jude and 
Peter in his second epistle. In his remaining epistles 
he instructs those whom he addresses, solves their 
doubts, perfects, and confirms them in Christian faith 
and practice. 

All these letters are filled with gems of wisdom 
and practical guidance. The heresies we mentioned 
above were contemporary with the Apostles; from 
the beginning the enemy sowed cockle in the wheat. 

In the second part of these epistles Paul teaches 
Christian virtues and Christian ethics, not in a con- 
tinuous treatise, but in brief sentences. This was 
the custom with inspired writers of the Old Testa- 
ment, as we see in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Ecclesi- 
" asticus, and also with the Greek pagan writers of that 
time. 

The epistles of St. Paul seem to have been written 
in the following order—! Thessalonians, 2 Thessa- 
lonians, | Corinthians, | Timothy, 2 Corinthians, 


240 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Galatians, Romans, Titus, 2 Timothy, Ephesians, 
Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, Hebrews. 

The last six of these were written, while Paul was 
a prisoner in Rome. 


ST. JAMES 


The writer of this epistle is James the Less, as dis- 
tinguished from the Apostle of Spain, because he 
was younger, or called later, or for some other reason. 
He is called the brother of the Lord, but not in the 
ordinary acceptation of the term. James had two 
brothers among the Apostles—Jude and Simon. He 
was a minister of the circumcision, because he 
preached to the Jews only. He was the first bishop 
of Jerusalem. The Venerable Bede thinks that he 
was so appointed on the day following the martydom 
of St. Stephen, to calm the animosity of the Jews for 
the severe rebuke that had fallen from the lips of the 
proto-martyr. Paul calls him a pillar of the Church 
with Peter (Gal. I1.9). Peter delivered from prison 
sent without delay a messenger to James (Acts 
XII.17). Jude glories in the fact that he is a brother 
of James. On account of the prominence of this son, 
his mother is called the mother of James, although 
she had three other sons, and two of these among the 
Apostles. 

James was the real protector of the Jews. To win 
them and lead them to Christ, he kept the law so long 
as it could conscientiously be kept; he advised Paul 
to adopt the same course in order to provide for his 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT 241 


safety and their conversion. The early writers call 
attention to the physical resemblance of James to 
his divine Master, and so explain why Judas gave the 
particular sign to the Jews for fear that the one might 
be mistaken for the other. James’ life on earth was 
a reflexion of the life of the Blessed in heaven. He 
was present at the first council in Jerusalem. He 
was martyred probably during the seventh year of 
Nero. There is a great difference of opinions con- 
cerning his age at the time of his death. Some place 
it at 96, but it seems improbable that Christ should 
have selected a septuagenarian for the arduous du- 
ties of the apostolate; all the others were young when 
called. 

Eusebius the historian gives us the following de- 
scription of his life, martyrdom, and death: James 
was a Saint from birth, he drank no wine or beer, and 
abstained from fleshmeat; he never shaved his head. 
He alone was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies. 
Assiduousness in prayer on his knees had so hard- 
ened them as to resemble those of a camel. James 
was so loved by the Jews that, after having witnessed 
his zeal for their conversion, they approached him 
with a request that he stop the losses in their ranks. 
_ James seized the last occasion to speak to them about 
his Master. His frank and open profession of faith 
cost him his life. After being precipitated from the 
pinnacle of the temple, and landing nearly dead, he 
begged God with eyes raised to heaven to forgive 
them. James had also been favored by a special ap- 
parition of Christ after His resurrection. 


242 THESPRIMITIVE*CHURGE 


The purpose of James in writing his epistle was, 
first, to animate the faithful to constancy in the midst 
of the persecution, which they endured both from 
Jews and Gentiles; and secondly, to commend good 
works and the practice of virtues, of piety and char- 
ity in particular. In‘it he teaches us that all evil 
proceeds from us, and that all good comes from God; 
he distinguishes heavenly from earthly wisdom; he 
declares that the world is inimical to God, and God 
to the world; he insists that we mortify concupis- 
cence, that God is the judge and avenger of all; that 
we must seek God’s friendship in preference to that 
of the world; he condemns overanxiety concerning 
the future and recommends implicit confidence in 
God’s providence. James left us in his epistle the 
clear statement that one of the means devised by 
Christ to pour out his graces is the anointment of the 
sick. 

This letter was written shortly before the death of 
the Apostle. The Apostles were all so intent upon 
preaching the word of God, that only in the later 
years of their life they conveyed some of their teach- 
ing in writing. Unlike the letters of Paul, this epis- 
tle was addressed to the universal Church. 


S eur ede dk 


Of St. Peter we have two epistles. The first of 
these was written in Rome in the year that Peter 
moved his episcopal see from Antioch to the Eternal 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT 243 


City, and was sent by Sylvanus to the faithful at 
Antioch. The proof is that Mark was still with 
Peter, as he sent Mark’s greetings; Peter sent him 
that year to preside over the church of Alexandria, 
after Mark had already written his Gospel in Rome. 

It was addressed primarily to the converted Jews, 
dispersed over Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and 
Bithynia, as the title indicates, for these were the 
original converts of Peter, and of these he took spe- 
cial care, but secondarily also to the converted Gen- 
tiles, because as Chief Pastor of the Church he was 
interested in all. 

Peter argues in his letter about faith and morals. 
In regard to faith he shows the wonderful counsel of 
God, and the blessing of the Incarnation, Passion, and 
Redemption, and the call of the Jews and of the Gen- 
tiles to faith and glory. He upholds the right doc- 
trine, foretold by the prophets, and preached by the 
Apostles at the command of God, which we must con- 
stantly follow, and for which we must be prepared to 
sacrifice our very lives. Thence he passes to morals. 
He teaches the faithful obedience to the temporal 
rulers, even if they be pagans. He shows the con- 
scientious relations between masters and servants, 
husbands and wives, young and old, faithful and 
spiritual leaders. In the recommendation of virtues 
he lays special stress upon patience in tribulation. 

The same teaching is also found in the epistles of 
Paul, James, and Jude. They were all moved by the 
same Holy Ghost to record the same truths; all 


244 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


thought and expressed themselves in the same way 
concerning the virtues of a Christian; all adopted the 
same norm in teaching sound Christian morality. 

There is a great difference of style and phraseology 
between the two epistles of Peter; he had probably 
a different secretary for each. The second letter was 
written towards the end of his life. It is the mes- 
sage of a father about to say farewell to the Church 
on earth and to the world; he warns his children 
against false teachers and scoffers, and tells them of 
the sudden dissolution of the world. 

Incidentally he remarks that even in Scripture, 
viz., in the epistles of Paul, there are certain things 
hard to understand, which the unwise might take to 
their own destruction, intimating the need of inter- 
preters of the revealed word. 

Peter passed the last nine months of his life in the 
Mamertine prison; there he found leisure to instruct 
by letter those that he could no longer address per- 
sonally; thus was the second letter written from his 
prison. 


ST. JUDE 


There were two men by the name of Judas in 
the apostolic college—Judas Iscariot and Judas the 
brother of James. His mother was a cousin of the 
Blessed Virgin. She had four sons, three of whom 
were called to the apostolate—James, Jude, and 
Simon, and the fourth, Joseph, was one of the two 
candidates at the election of the traitor’s successor. 


THE WRITERS OF NEW TESTAMENT 245 


All are called brothers of Christ, that is, relatives of 
Christ. Jude was also named Thaddeus. Although 
evangelizing Persia, he wrote his epistle in Greek and 
addressed it to the universal Church. As Origen 
says, the epistle is very short, it contains only 25 
verses, but it is full of heavenly wisdom. This short 
epistle confirms explicitly many points concerning 
faith. In a dogmatic way we find in it the mystery 
of the Most Holy Trinity, the difference between 
good and bad angels, belief in and fear of the last 
judgment. 

Its moral teaching embraces abhorrence of impur- 
ity, blasphemy and other capital vices, also constancy 
in prayer, charity in the conversion of the erring, and 
of heretics, and praise of God. It is a compendium 
of the whole theology,—a gospel all in one chapter. 

The purpose of Jude was to crush the heresies then 
existing, such as of Simon the Magician, of Cerinthus, 
and of the Nichoalites, and others that would soon 
be born from them. He warns his readers against the 
consequences of this aberration from truth, and 
teaches them constancy in the faith, lest they suffer 
like the Sodomites and the apostate angels, who all 
perished miserably. 

This epistle is a standing condemnation of heresy; 
the faithful must fight it, if they would not perish 
with the rebels. He compares these heretics to Cain, 
Balaam, and Core, and calls them: clouds without 
water, trees of the autumn, raging waves of the sea, 
wandering stars. He tells us ever to be faithful to 
the teaching of the Apostles and to resist the false 


246 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


prophets; he also suggests the means to be preserved 
from error, and bring back those that have seceded. 

This epistle and the second of St. Peter confirm 
each other; there is no absolute certainty as to which 
was written first. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH 


THE SUCCESSORS OF ST. PETER UP TO THE END 
OF THE FIRST CENTURY 


Tue first visible head of the Church after Christ 
had been put to death like his Master, by crucifixion. 
As the Church was to continue as a visible society 
up to the end of time, the mantle of Peter’s authority 
and primacy had to fall on other shoulders. At the 
time of his death some of the other Apostles may 
have been living; St. John certainly was. None of 
them came to Rome to claim the succession. 

Eusebius and other ancient writers inform us that 
the first to receive the episcopate of the Roman 
Church after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul was 
Linus. Paul mentioned his name in the second let- 
ter he wrote from Rome to Timothy; among others 
he sent to his disciple the greetings of Linus. From 
authentic sources we gather the following details of 
his life and of his pontificate. He hailed from Vol- 
terra, and was therefore an Italian by birth. He 
ruled the Church for 11 years and 3 months. Most 
probably he assisted Peter in the government of the 
Church, and by his command he established that 
women should have the head veiled, when entering 


the church. Ancient writers also tell us that Linus 
247 


248 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


condemned the followers of Menander, who was a 
disciple of Simon the Magician, and _ officially 
declared that the God of the Old Testament is the 
Creator of all, and that there is nothing wrong in 
the nature of things. 

The destruction of Jerusalem occurred under the 
pontificate of Linus, and together with the triumph 
of the Roman forces over the Jews under Vespasian 
and Titus, and the verification of Christ’s prophecy 
concerning the Holy City. Linus is venerated as a 
martyr, although under his pontificate there was no 
general persecution against the Church; the fact 
shows that Linus suffered great hardships for the 
faith. In the public liturgy his name comes im- 
mediately after those of the Apostles, which proves 
his great merits and his holiness. He was buried 
near the tomb of St. Peter. At the time of the 
restoration of St. Peter’s basilica a sarcophagus was 
found bearing the simple inscription—“Linus.” 

Some ancient writers have thought that the first 
successor of Peter was not Linus but Clement. The 
reason perhaps of their belief was that in a letter to 
St. James, Clement asserts that he was consecrated 
bishop by St. Peter. Although such apocryphal 
writings, owing to their antiquity, carry some weight, 
yet they do not offset the testimony of so many 
others. The consecration may be quite correct, and 
further it may be true that in his humility he twice 
refused the succession, and thus enabled Linus and 
Cletus to succeed the one after the other. Most 
likely not only Clement, but also Linus and Cletus 


THE SSUGGESSORS OBST.) PETER 9249 


were consecrated bishops by St. Peter, to be his 
helpers in those terrible days, especially when duty 
forced upon him long absences from the city. 

The second successor from 78 to 90 was St. Cletus. 
He was a Roman, and governed the Church 12 years, 
1 month and 11 days. He lived in the days of Ves- 
pasian and Titus. He carried out a command of 
Blessed Peter by ordaining 25 priests for Rome. It 
is hard to determine the number of Christians at that 
time in Rome. We know from an official document 
that in 252 there were 44 priests for about 50,000 
Christians; this estimate is probably too low. The 
number of 25 priests under Cletus indicates at any 
rate that Christianity had made considerable prog- 
ress. Cletus was buried on the Vatican Hill near 
the body of St. Peter. The oldest documents give 
us that information. 

In some old catalogues one Anacletus is mentioned 
as an occupant of St. Peter’s chair, and this has led 
to the controversy whether he was with Cletus one 
and the same person. Anacletus is said to have been 
a Greek from Athens and to have lived in the days 
of Domitian. Without settling the question we 
would remark that the most ancient Fathers and 
writers name only one between Linus and Clement, 
and that is Cletus. The Annuario published at the 
Vatican gives Anacletus as Clement’s successor. 

Clement succeeded Cletus. St. Irenzus writes 
about him as follows: Clement was the third from 
Peter to occupy the episcopal chair. He had seen 
the Apostles and conversed with them, but he was 


250 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


not the only one; many others instructed by the 
Apostles still survived. 

Under the pontificate of Clement a great dissen- 
sion arose among the brethren at Corinth. He wrote 
to the Corinthians a very important letter, in which 
he invited them to peace among themselves, strength- 
ened their faith, and told them what traditions they 
had recently received from the Apostles. There is no 
doubt about the genuineness of this letter; of other 
letters to the Corinthians and to his brothers, we are 
not so sure. To understand the nature of his un- 
doubtedly genuine letter to the Corinthians we must 
remark that indeed great trouble existed in that 
church. Priests appointed by the Apostles or by 
their successors and known for their integrity of life 
and their learning were driven out or deposed. This 
happened when St. John was still among the living 
and several years before his death. Yet the better 
element among the Corinthians looked for a remedy 
in those desperate circumstances, not to St. John, but 
to the occupant of Peter’s chair. Modern writers 
think that this letter was written in 97 towards the 
end of Domitian’s persecution. In it Clement re- 
called to the Corinthians the former high reputation 
of their church, its piety and hospitality, its obe- 
dience and discipline. Jealousy had brought about 
the trouble; he urged them to repent and to preserve 
order as all creation does. He warned them that the 
Apostles had provided a succession of pastors, that 
could not be removed at will. Clement concluded 
by stating that he would be happy, if they would 


THE SUCCESSORS OF ST. PETER 251 


obey. He sent two venerable messengers to show 
how great his anxiety for peace was; he hoped that 
they would soon return bearers of a favorable report. 

Clement was a Roman by birth. According to a 
Roman tradition, he came from a noble family 
related to Vespasian, and was a relative also of the 
consul Flavius Clemens, who under Domitian with 
his wife Flavia Domitilla was arrested for his faith. 
It is further claimed that the site of the present 
church of St. Clement was that of his father’s house. 
Clement divided the city into seven regions, which 
he committed to seven notaries, whose duty was to 
compile carefully the acts of the martyrs. 

In Clement’s time the second general persecution 
against the Christians arose, in the later days of 
emperor Domitian. After the death of Nero in June, 
68, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius contested the throne, 
but in a short time all perished miserably. In Decem- 
ber, 69, Vespasian came into possession; he was suc- 
ceeded in 79 by Titus, who died in September, 81. 
The next occupant was Domitian, Titus’ younger 
brother: he was a real pervert and reigned up to 96, 
when he was killed. His successors were Nerva 
(96-98) and Trajan (98-117). 

In the third year of Trajan, that is, in the year 
100, Clement was sent in exile to the Crimea, and 
cast into the sea. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH 
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 


Jupaism in the designs of Providence had served 
its purpose in the history of the world as a prepara- 
tion for Christianity. Jerusalem and its temple, the 
center of Jewish worship, no longer had their primi- 
tive importance; they could no longer exist without 
harm to Christianity, which they menaced with a 
double danger—confusion of doctrine and persecu- 
tion. The Christian converts from Judaism would 
have been the principal victims; they were exposed 
to the hatred of their former coreligionists, and they 
themselves would foment division within the ranks 
of the Church against the converts from paganism, 
or make a mixture of discordant elements. The 
destruction of Jerusalem and of its temple was there- 
fore an event of the highest importance for the dif- 
fusion of Christianity, as the Saviour Himself had 
foretold, when both city and temple were at the 
height of their glory and magnificence. The Jews 
had been the chosen instruments in the designs of 
God’s providence, and still clung to prerogatives, 
which they had lost. The most touching marks of 
God’s mercy, the past and impending chastisements, 


had failed to open the eyes of the stiff-necked people 
252 


THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 253 


to the light of God’s revelation. They had inter- 
preted the prophecies concerning the Messiah in a 
narrow political way, and failed to recognize in Jesus 
of Nazareth the long expected Messiah. The Roman 
domination upset all their calculations, when it 
should have proved the fulfilment of Jacob’s proph- 
ecy. A crisis was imminent. 

Oppressed by the Roman governors at Cesarea, 
the Jews meditated revenge and they openly revolted 
under the governorship of Gestius Florus. The near 
occasion of the revolt was the sacrifice of some birds 
by a pagan near the synagogue in derision of Jewish 
worship. The revolt soon spread to Jerusalem, and 
in 67 the whole nation rose against Rome. The ter- 
rible day was near, when the Saviour’s prophecy 
would be fulfilled to the letter. 

Nero charged Vespasian with the high command 
of the Roman forces. Vespasian, whom Titus joined 
on his return from Egypt, invaded Galilee with a 
powerful army. After an obstinate resistance of 40 
days on the part of the Jews, he captured the 
strongest fortress they had in that province; the 
battle cost the lives of thousands of Jews; after that 
the general easily subdued the whole province. The 
victorious armies were most anxious to continue their 
triumphal march into Judea, to take and destroy 
Jerusalem and so end the war. The prudent leader 
waited for a favorable moment, which the internal 
divisions among the Jews would hasten. 

The older men of Judea desired peace, but the 
younger generation breathed hatred and war. Ves- 


254 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


pasian first subdued the rest of Judea and then 
camped in sight of Jerusalem in the spring of 68. 
Nero had killed himself, after having been declared 
a traitor to the empire by the Roman senate. Ves- 
pasian awaited orders from his successor. The Ro- 
man army proclaimed Vespasian emperor, who then 
entrusted his son Titus with the task to conclude the 
victorious war. We borrow the following details 
from Josephus, the great Jewish historian of this war. 

Fearful signs had appeared in Jerusalem as fore- 
bodings of imminent disaster. Fiery armies had 
been noticed moving about in the air; a great light 
shone near the altar; the bronze east door of the 
temple had opened by itself; a mysterious voice had 
been heard in the temple saying: Let us move 
hence. Titus had arrived from Czesarea with new 
forces to besiege the city. The Christians in the 
besieged city remembered the prophecy of their 
Master; “When you shall see Jerusalem compassed 
about with an army, then know that the desolation 
thereof is at hand” (Luke XXI.20). They left the 
city in company with their bishop, St. Simeon, the 
successor of St. James, and moved to Pella across the 
Jordan. Josephus Flavius tells us that the Jews 
foreseeing what was going to happen, brought into 
the city such an abundance of provisions that they 
could have carried on the war for several years. The 
various factions in their hatred of one another prac- 
tically destroyed all in five months, from April to 
September, with the result that a horrible famine 
prevailed. They defended themselves behind em- 


THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 255 


bankments of dead bodies, which soon caused pest. 

Titus arrived at Easter, when an immense multi- 
tude had been attracted to the city for the Pasch. 
Josephus estimated it at 2,700,000, but Tacitus only 
mentions 600,000. The defenders of the city, after 
having fought the common enemy, began to murder 
one another. They were all witnesses of the fulfil- 
ment of a prophecy of the Nazarean, whom they had 
mocked. With pest, famine, beastly hatred, sedi- 
tion and murder, the abomination of desolation had 
come. A mother unable to feed her child would kill 
it, roast its flesh, eat some, and give the rest to the 
hungry crowd. The news of these horrors soon 
spread to the camp of the Romans, who were so hor- 
rified that they decided to bury these horrors under 
the ruins of Jerusalem. In vain did Titus invite the 
besieged to surrender; the Romans then stormed the 
city and took it by assault. A soldier put fire to the 
temple; it burnt down. The whole city was wiped 
out and levelled to the ground. During the war over 
a million people perished, and 97,000 were taken 
prisoners and sold as slaves elsewhere. 

The Jews had lost their nationality; they were 
scattered all over the world. No promise of restora- 
tion! no more prophets or kings! no altar! no temple! 
The scepter had departed for ever from Juda! 

The scattered Jews and Christians soon after were 
allowed to return to the devastated city; the faithful 
with their bishop returned; their ranks were increased 
with the accession of numerous Jews. 

About 250 years later a Roman emperor named 


256 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Julian (the Apostate) tried to pass the lie on the 
Nazarean and all His prophecies concerning the 
destruction of the temple. When young, Julian had 
as fellow student on the school benches of Athens, 
Gregory of Nazianzum. The future saint and doc- 
tor of the Church prophetically said of the future 
emperor: “What .a monster the Roman empire 
raises in its bosom!” Julian induced the Jews to 
rebuild the temple and helped them with his money. 
But his efforts were in vain. The first attempt was 
frustrated by fire emerging from the foundations; 
earthquakes and other signs destroyed all the mate- 
rial brought together for the construction. The 
incident is related by a pagan writer. A second at- 
tempt had equally to be abandoned. Since then the 
Jews never tried to rebuild the temple, although 
humanly speaking with the means at their disposal, 
it would have been an easy undertaking. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-NINTH 
HERESIES OF THE FIRST CENTURY 


BesipEs the external wars or persecutions, the 
Church experienced from the beginning internal wars 
—heresies and schisms, but as history records, she 
came out victorious over the one and the other 
variety. 

The standardbearer of heresy in the days of the 
Apostles was Simon the Magician, with whom we 
became acquainted at Samaria, when after his bap-. 
tism by Philip, the deacon, he saw the wonderful 
results of the imposition of the hands of the Apostles 
on the neophytes. He tried then to buy from Peter 
and John the privilege of giving the Holy Ghost. 
Not all need be admitted that great writers, like 
Justin the Philosopher, Irenzus, Tertullian and 
Eusebius have left us about him. Whether it is ab- 
solutely correct that he had his statue among the gods 
of Rome, learned modern critics argue among them- 
selves: whether he had his statue on the Tiberine 
island, between the two bridges, with the dedicatory 
inscription: To Simon the holy god; and whether 
this statue is the same as that found in 1574 in that 


neighborhood, is immaterial. Many learned critics 
257 


258 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


uphold St. Justin, who gives us further details of 
Simon’s teaching. 

Simon gave himself out as a quasi-god; under 
Claudius he came to the imperial city of Rome, where 
for his magic he was looked upon as god; many of 
the Samaritans and many of other nations worshipped 
him as a god of the first order. Helen an infamous 
woman, who was his steady companion, was con- 
sidered as the mother of all other beings. In Rome 
he addressed the senate and the people, who gave 
him a place among the gods. St. Augustin tells us 
that he gave out pictures of himself and his com- 
panion, to be adored by his disciples. St. Irenzus 
speaks of the advent of Simon in Rome, as of an 
historical fact beyond question. As Simon could not 
make headway in Samaria, no wonder that he went 
to the city, to which, according to Tacitus, all that 
was atrocious and infamous flocked and was in honor. 
Another writer, Arnobius, who wrote towards the 
end of the third century, informs us that when Simon 
was reminded of his old age he guaranteed to rise 
the third day, if he were buried. He ordered his 
disciples to dig a grave and to bury him. They car- 
ried out the command, but he remained there up to 
the present, because he was not the Christ, says 
Arnobius. What the Fathers and other sacred writers 
of a later date relate of Simon and of his violent 
death cannot simply be called a myth. If it is doubt- 
ful whether the narrative of Simon’s flight and of 
his crash to the earth is fiction; so long as no proofs 
are given to the contrary, we prefer to believe the 


HERESIES OF THE FIRST CENTURY 259 


evidence of the above named great writers and to 
admit that Peter’s prayer brought down the impos- 
tor. Simon’s crash ended his life and his glory. 

The Gnostics were the most famous of the heretics, 
who in the beginning of the Church corrupted the 
teaching of Christ with pernicious errors. They were 
so called because they boasted a true knowledge of 
God and of things divine. Gnosticism, one of the 
religio-political theories in vogue even before Christ, 
and spread over the Orient, was born of pride pre- 
venting the human mind from renouncing ideas in 
opposition to divine revelation. The Gnostics con- 
sidered matter as the source of all evil, and therefore 
claimed that it could not have been created by a 
good God, that it was eternal, and that some spirits 
had created from it the world and men. Good spirits 
of different sex had been created by God, and from 
their union other spirits proceeded, but less perfect; 
each successive generation implied a gradual dete- 
rioration. One of the lower order of spirits had 
created this world from vicious matter; he success- 
fully resisted all the influences of a superior order, 
but eventually he will fall through the power of 
another spirit to be sent to men. Many Gnostics 
considered Christ to be that spirit and were baptized; 
others endeavored to conciliate their principles with 
the Christian doctrine and hideously corrupted it. 
This and other heresies of that time differed one from 
another under some respects, but agreed under other. 
All denied that Christ was true God; all claimed that 
he assumed not a real but an ethereal body, or simply 


260 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


the shadow of a body, and therefore did not truly 
suffer and die. They all rejected the Old Testament 
in so far as the creation of the world by God is con- 
cerned; of the New Testament they rejected all that 
was contrary to their views. We have related in the 
preceding chapters the arguments of St. Paul with 
them and remarked that the Apostles in their writ- 
ings warned the faithful against them. 

The Judaizers were converted Jews, who in the early 
days still clung to the Mosaic ritual. These Chris- 
tians admitted besides Christ another source of spir- 
itual life, the law of Moses, and therefore threw a 
doubt upon the divinity of Christ. Eventually they 
separated from the Church and formed a separate 
sect. This sect split into two; some sided with Peter 
and observed the law without making salvation de- 
pend upon it; others pretended that the observance of 
the law was binding on all, on converts from pagan- 
ism as well as on converts from Judaism. The latter 
caused considerable agitation in the church of An- 
tioch about the year 50, and later on in Galatia and 
at Corinth. At the death of St. James the Judaizers 
had their candidate for the see of Jerusalem, but he 
was not elected and St. Simeon took the place of 
the martyred Apostle. This led to the first formal 
schism. During the siege of Jerusalem the Judaizers 
separated entirely from the Christian body and with 
the Esseneans formed the sect of the Ebionites. With 
them Christ was a mere man born according to the 
laws of nature. The Apostle of the Gentiles was to 
them the object of a deepseated hatred; he was an 


HERESIES OF THE FIRST CENTURY 201 


apostate. They accepted as a source of religious in- 
formation the Hebrew version of the Gospel of St. 
Matthew only. Their leader Ebion with some others 
gave to their creed the appearance of a theosophic 
asceticism. 

Advanced systems of philosophy menaced the 
Church more than the crude pretensions of Judaism. 
The deceitful reasonings of Greek and Oriental 
philosopy, especially those of Philo, mixed with Chris- 
tian truth tended to deprive the latter of its divine 
character. In their disregard for matter these philos- 
ophers had adopted the theory of dualism and emana- 
tion, and were very active at Colossus, Ephesus, and 
in Greece and gained followers among the Pharisees 
of Palestine. Their chief, Menander, gave himself 
out for the Messiah, and therefore St. Irenzeus calls 
him the successor of Simon the Magician. He 
claimed for himself divine power, which put him 
above the angels, and his special mission was to 
deliver the world of them. He introduced the rite 
of baptism among his followers. 

St. Irenzeus tells us that Cerinthus was a contem- 
porary of St. John; he was one of the strictest 
Judaizers. His doctrine was a mixture of Chris- 
tianity and Judaism. He admitted a supreme God, 
a mysterious being without any relation to the 
visible world; he thought the world created by a being 
inferior to the supreme God, what the Jews adored 
under the name of Jehovah was only an angel. 
Jesus was for him like for the Ebionites remarkable 
for His wisdom and His piety; at His baptism the 


262 “THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


supreme Logos came down upon Him and filled His 
soul; He had revealed the Father unknown up to 
then; He performed miracles, but the Logos left 
Jesus, and the man alone suffered and rose again; 
the Logos could not suffer. Cerinthus and his fol- 
lowers admitted only the Gospel of St. Matthew; 
they hated above-.all the writings of St. Paul and 
of St. John. Eusebius narrates that Cerinthus wrote 
a book in opposition to St. John; he called it inspired 
as also all his other erroneous ideas, and named it 
his apocalypse. He thought like the Jews generally 
that the Messiah would establish on earth a material 
and glorious kingdom, and was a precursor of Mil- 
lenarianism wrongly understood. 

The teaching of the Nicolaites was a mixture of 
the ideas of Cerinthus with Gnosticism. Whether 
their leader was Nicholas, one of the seven deacons, 
or simply borrowed his name, is not clear. Ancient 
writers credit him with the grossest immorality. It 
is probable that those reproved by St. Peter (11.151) 
and by St. Jude (2-21) were the Nicolaites, and that 
after the departure and death of St. Paul they gained 
ground in Asia Minor. This constrained St. John 
shortly after the death of Peter and Paul to return 
to Ephesus and lead a vigorous campaign against 
them. 

The enemy of all good realized that the power of 
the Cross would cause the idols to crumble; he then 
tried heresy and schism to supplant faith, corrupt 
truth, and destroy unity. The snares of the devil 
were numerous from the very beginning; we need not 


HERESIES OF THE FIRST CENTURY 263 


wonder if these early would-be reformers have their 
followers in all subsequent ages. Christ had guar- 
anteed the stability of His Church against all assaults 
and vicissitudes. To offset the’evil effects of heresy 
and schism, to remove the cockle from the wheat, 
God selected the Apostle of love, the last survivor of 
the twelve. He combated heresy not only by word, 
but also by his Gospel, the most sublime model of 
true contemplation and mysticism, and by his first 
epistle, which is as a preface to his Gospel. But we 
need not look in this controversy for an open fight 
against the heretics. St. John refutes heresy by the 
exposition of the truth, as did his disciple Ignatius 
after him. So are all the above heresies victoriously 
refuted, especially in the first chapter of John’s Gos- 
pel. The Logos who created all and without whom 
nothing is created is not merely a human being, nor 
a God inferior to the Father, but the co-eternal and 
consubstantial Son of God, who became man. Not 
by the Mosaic Law is admission granted to the so- 
ciety of the Logos, but by the faith in Christ. 

John unfolds in his Apocalypse the destinies of the 
Church, always victorious over all revolutions that 
shall shake it up to the day, when this world shall be 
renewed, until this earthly Jerusalem shall have been 
transformed into the heavenly city. That apostolic 
zeal for all wayward children of the Church, so trans- 
parent in his Gospel and in his epistles, did not grow 
weaker through the weight of years for the cen- 
tenarian Apostle. 


CHAPTER THIRTIETH 
PUBLIC WORSHIP-IN THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES 


THE public worship or the Liturgy, which is a 
certain arrangement of prayers and ceremonies, as 
we have it to-day, did not exist in the days of the 
Apostles. The mystical breaking of the bread or the 
Eucharistic service had not an altogether set formula, 
but was partly composed by the officiating bishop or 
priest. The ceremonial gradually grew out of certain 
obvious actions, sometimes performed for convenience 
sake only; in a similar way developed the church 
vestments. But all actions and all ceremonies of 
the Liturgy were not left to the improvisation of the 
officiating minister; a considerable liberty left to him 
in that regard explains the absence of absolute unity 
in the early Christian churches. | 

In regard to the public worship par excellence— 
the celebration of the Holy Eucharist—we find from 
the very beginning a uniform nucleus founded upon 
what Christ Himself had done at the Last Supper. 
In the Primitive Church we find much more than the 
essential part in the celebration. Lessons, psalms, 
prayer, and preaching preceded; this was a continua- 
tion of the service of the synagogue; Amen was 
retained. 

264 


PUBLIC WORSHIP 265 


Two early ceremonies, that accompanied the 
celebration, soon disappeared; they were not essential. 
The first was the love-feast; the other the spiritual 
exercises, in which people were moved by the Holy 
Ghost to prophesy, speak in divers tongues, heal the 
sick by prayer, and so on; St. Paul in his first epistle 
to the Corinthians refers to that (XVI.1-14). Apart 
from the account of the Last Supper we find in the 
New Testament various other liturgical forms, such as 
the following: reading of the sacred books, sermons, 
psalms, and hymns, public liturgical prayers for all 
classes of people, the faithful lifted up their hands 
at prayer, men with uncovered heads, women with 
heads veiled; kiss of peace; there was an offertory 
of goods for the poor, and this received the special 
name of communion. In his first epistle to the Corin- 
thians St. Paul shows that to the first Christians 
the table of the Eucharist was an altar; in the Acts 
(XX.11) he breaks bread, communicates, and 
preaches. From this nucleus gradually developed the 
liturgy of later ages. The center of religious worship 
now is the Holy Eucharist and the real presence. It 
is interesting to know what the great Apostle of the 
Gentiles thought about it. 

In his first epistle to the Corinthians (X1.23 and 
foll.) St. Paul presents the Eucharistic doctrine, not 
as something new to the people, but as well known. 
He recalls to their mind what they do believe in 
order to excite them to greater devotion. His argu- 
ments, when taken in their entirety, illustrate the 
certainty of the’ Apostle’s mind. How he received 


266 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


of the Lord his Eucharistic narrative, whether directly 
or indirectly, he does not openly say, but we may 
admit that he learned the words and the actions from 
the Apostles. Christ could have taught him directly, 
but he could also teach him through the Apostles, 
as He did concerning His Resurrection. 

In regard to the sacrifice, he speaks of the body of 
the Lord that shall be delivered for you; it is Christ 
in the form of a victim; and by adding after both 
sacrificial sentences of Christ the words: “Do this 
for a commemoration of me” he does not appeal to 
the bloody sacrifice of the cross. The words of 
Christ, as repeated by St. Paul—‘“This chalice is the 
New Testament in my blood’—remind us of the Old 
Testament, which Moses consecrated by sprinkling 
the sacrificed blood upon the people (Ex. XXIV.8). 
Christ, in order to confirm in a more wonderful way 
the New Testament, does not sprinkle the sacrificed 
blood upon the people, but gives it to them to drink. 
The Apostles were commanded to do what Christ had 
done: therefore they also must produce the body and 
blood of Christ in a sacrificial state; unless they did 
so, it does not appear how they would announce the 
death of the Lord; the eating of it only does not 
represent death. 

In the previous chapter of the same epistle (X.21) 
he wrote: “You cannot be partakers of the table of 
the Lord and of the table of devils.” There is no 
doubt but that the table of devils meant sacrifice; the 
context makes that very plain; as an evident parallel- 
ism, the table of the Lord also means sacrifice. The 


PUBLIC WORSHIP 267 


above words are taken from Malachy (1.7-12), where 
the prophet certainly treats of sacrifices. In that 
same prophecy we find that splendid promise of a 
future sacrifice. No doubt therefore is possible; 
Paul opposed the Eucharistic sacrifice to the pagan 
sacrifices. In his letter to the Hebrews (XIT1.10) 
Paul says: “We have an altar, whereof they have 
no power to eat who serve the tabernacle.’ The 
objection from the same epistle to the effect that the 
sacrifice of the cross is sufficient for all, falls, when 
we consider that St. Paul never claimed that the 
Eucharistic sacrifice was essentially different from 
that of the cross. The assertion that the sacrifice of 
praise (Psalm 40) as nowadays misunderstood, is all 
that is required is equally absurd. The sacrifice of 
praise in that psalm is not praise without a sacrifice, 
but sacrifice with praise. Moreover, if it were to be 
taken in a metaphorical sense, why are not the Jews 
allowed to offer it? 

As Paul believed in a true sacrifice of the body and 
blood of Christ, so he believed in the real presence 
under the sacramental veil. He repeats the words 
of institution without any explanation, to inspire the 
Corinthians with greater respect. He would have 
missed his purpose entirely if they could have objected 
that all was to be understood metaphorically. Paul 
could not have expressed himself more clearly than 
when he judged guilty of the body and blood of 
Christ those who receive the Eucharist unworthily 
(1 Cor. X1.27). In verse 29 he tells us that the like 
eat and drink judgment to themselves, if they do not 


268 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


consider that Eucharistic body as the body of Christ. 
In the preceding chapter (X.16-17) he states just as 
plainly his belief, and he further shows that as we 
all partake of one bread, that Eucharistic bread is not 
transformed in us, but we are transformed into it to 
become one bread. There would not be one bread, if 
it were not one body of Christ. Through that com- 
munion the divine life received in baptism is nour- 
ished: it effects that Christ lives in us (Gal. I1.20) 
and through it we are all one in Christ (111.28). 

Our Lord very likely instituted the Eucharist after 
the ordinary supper, and the early Christians seem 
to have had their Eucharistic celebration after the 
ordinary meal. When writing to the Corinthians 
(1 Cor. X.21-22) Paul seems to reprimand them for 
taking ordinary food before receiving the Holy 
Eucharist. It appears that the practice, introduced 
from Jerusalem was not countenanced by him, and 
that he abrogated it, but there is no certainty about 
it. 

The teaching of St. Paul on that point was the 
teaching of all the Apostles, because faith is one; 
God the unchangeable truth, could not reveal one 
thing to Paul and the opposite to others. 

What is true of the sacrifice of the New Law and 
of the real presence is just as true about all essentials 
of religion, and of the other means instituted by 
Christ for our salvation. 

Kaufman in his “Manual of Christian Archeol- 
ogy” gives us the topography of some of the ancient 
Christian monuments of the first century. At Phil- 


PUBLIC WORSHIP 269 


ippi may be seen the ruins of a church with a cupola 
in the form of a cross; at Corinth, Crete, Antioch, 
Damascus, Tyre, etc., there were in the first century 
churches worthy of the name. 

The inspired word and authentic tradition have 
left us some interesting details of churches in Rome 
of apostolic origin. The Christian faith had prob- 
ably been brought to the capital of the Cesars by 
the strangers of Rome, who were in Peter’s audience 
on the first Christian Pentecost and were converted 
by him. Among the very first apostles of Rome were 
some of the Italian band in garrison at Cesarea, 
who were converted together with their centurion, 
Cornelius. Peter came shortly afterwards to Rome 
to organize that primitive Church. It was left in 
peace until 49, when, owing to frequent disturbances 
caused by the Jews, emperor Claudius drove all the 
adherents of the synagogue out of Rome. Many con- 
verts from Judaism in the confusion were exiled with 
them. Among these were Aquila with his wife Prisca 
or Priscilla, who eventually established themselves 
in Corinth, where Paul found them. They after- 
wards followed the Apostle to Ephesus, and they re- 
turned to Rome in the beginning of Nero’s reign and 
certainly were there in 58. Both in his first letter 
to the Corinthians (XVI.19) and in his letter to the 
Romans (XVI.5) Paul mentions the church, which 
was in their house. From the greetings in Paul's 
letters we may form an idea of the importance of 
the Christian community in Rome at that time. En- 
tire families had embraced the faith, and there were 


270 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


several churches in private houses. One of these was 
in the house of Aquila and Prisca, on the Aventine, 
where now the church of St. Prisca stands. There 
was a similar one on the Viminal, where the church 
of St. Pudenziana now is. Much has been written 
about these two churches and their relations to the 
Apostles, but all is not equally clear. The best au- 
thorities admit that the latter was originally the 
house of Pudens. At the end of the fourth century, 
the priest in charge of this titular church caused to 
be reproduced in Mosaic for the same church the 
figure of Peter sitting on a chair and surrounded by 
the lambs of Christ—an allegorical allusion to the 
words of Christ: “Feed my lambs.” This shows 
that at the time it was a common tradition that Peter 
had really gathered the faithful at that place to teach 
them the heavenly doctrine. In the second century, 
St. Justin the philosopher, certifies that he twice 
dwelt in that same place. 

In regard to the other title of St. Prisca on the 
Aventine, which was the domestic church mentioned 
by St. Paul, it is said that Peter baptized there. 
The famous archeologist De Rossi suspected that 
there existed a relationship between the two churches 
or titles; this was afterwards confirmed by inscrip- 
tions found near this church. 

From the very beginning the Christians had their 
own cemeteries, known under the name of their orig- 
inal owners, such as: Lucina, Priscilla, Callixtus, etc. 
The oldest of the catacombs or cemeteries belong to 
the first century. The first was probably that of 


PUBLIC WORSHIP 271 


Priscilla, the model of all. According to ancient 
documents the bodies of many saints and among 
them those of Pudenziana and Praxedis, daughters 
of Pudens, and contemporaries of the Apostles, rested 
there, as also Aquila and Prisca, the proprietors of 
the domestic church on the Aventine. Inscriptions 
in marble have preserved the memory of the couple, 
so dear to St. Paul. The fact that the characters on 
the tombstones are similar to those on the walls of 
Pompeii show that they belong to the first century. 
A visit among these venerable tombs of the first 
century gives us the sweet impression of attendance 
at the meetings of the faithful of the apostolic age. 

In these domestic churches and cemeteries we find 
mural paintings of great interest. The most famous 
is that of the Madonna with the Child, which ac- 
cording to the unanimous verdict of archzologists 
belongs to the first half of the second century. This 
shows that veneration of the Mother of God is as old 
as the Church; the first Christians had heard from 
the lips of the dying Saviour the words: “Behold 
thy mother.” It could not be expressed, however, in 
a public and solemn manner in those days of perse- 
cution. In the beginning to convert the heathen 
world the Christians studiously avoided whatever 
might cause a confusion between the spirituality of 
their religion with the superstitious practices of pa- 
ganism. ‘This explains the scarcity of images at that 
time. Christ Himself was nearly always represented 
under a symbolic form or as an historic person in the 
evangelical episodes; we need not wonder that the 


o¥2 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


same happened in regard to His Mother. There are, 
however, now representations of the Virgin, dating 
from the days of the great persecutions and proving 
that the belief of the Christians on that point then 
was what it is to-day. One of these mural paintings 
represents the Virgin with the Infant and one of the 
Magi and the star. By comparison archeologists 
have come to the conclusion that this dates, from 
not later than the first half of the second century, 
and perhaps from the end of the first. As this was 
found near the cemetery of Priscilla, where the Apos- 
tles held forth, we may conclude that the painter had 
gathered precious information about the Mother of 
God from the Apostles themselves. 

Besides the above there are other important monu- 
ments, but historically not so certain. We will men- 
tion only a few. eis 

According to tradition the two Apostles were cast 
into a prison before their martyrdom. The name of 
Mamertine prison dates only from the Middle Ages. 
That common tradition does not contradict history or 
archeology; the two chambers, one above the other, 
were certainly the city prison in imperial days. Peter 
in jail converted hjs jailers, Processus and Martinian; 
he miraculously caused water to flow from a spring 
to baptize them. This tradition is traced back to 
the fifth or sixth century; it is certain that in the 
eighth century the place was held in great veneration. 
The spring of St. Peter, as it is called, may still be 
seen in the Mamertine prison. 

In the same acts of Processus and Martinian, dat- 


PUBLIC WORSHIP 273 


ing from the sixth century, a flight of St. Peter from 
prison is also recorded. On the way he is supposed 
to have lost a bandage used to bind up the wounds 
produced on his legs by the chains. This was picked 
up by a pious matron, who kept it and caused a 
church to be built in her house under the title of 
Fasciola or bandage. The document recording this 
is much posterior to the fact, but it is certain that 
this title is one of the most ancient and the most im- 
portant; from it depended the great cemetery of 
Domitilla of very remote origin. 

We are also told that St. Peter on his flight from 
the city, on the same Appian Way, a short distance 
from the walls, met Christ. Peter amazed asked 
him: “Lord, whither goest Thou?” Christ replied: 
“T go to Rome to be crucified again.” Peter under- 
stood the lesson, returned to the city, and shortly af- 
terwards was crucified. The oratory built on the spot 
is known under the name of “Quo Vadis.” Many 
other details that have gradually grown around these 
episodes do not deserve credence. 

Other ancient documents record the spot, where 
Simon the Magician crashed to earth at the prayer 
of St. Peter. This tradition is traced back to the 
third century, and was commonly admitted in the 
fourth. 

There are numerous other places recording events 
connected with the lives of Peter and Paul in Rome, 
but it is impossible to vouch for their accuracy. 

It is certain that there are no contemporary images 
of the two Apostles, no more than of Christ or of 


274 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


His Blessed Mother, but it is beyond doubt that the, 
ancient artists had before them older monuments and 
followed a traditional type in painting their pictures. 
Eusebius in the fourth century tells us that they had 
representations of the two Apostles by Gentile paint- 
ers, converted by them to the faith. Peter is repre- 
sented as a middle-sized man with curly hair and a 
short beard; Paul as short of stature with a bald head 
and a long beard. The oldest of these medallions in 
bronze that we know of belongs to the second century. 
We may suppose that the artist had seen the Apostles, 
or at least had friends that knew them. Other 
bronzes of the first half of the third century perpet- 
uated these traditional types. The stained glasses 
in the cemeteries in the third and fourth century al- 
ways represent the same types. The figures of the 
two Apostles may be easily recognized in the frescoes 
adorning the Roman catacombs. Most of those re- 
maining date from the fourth century. 

The above sufficiently shows that the Church of 
Rome had from the beginning numerous representa- 
tions of the two apostles. The reason of that cannot 
be accidental, nor to be found in the fact of a general 
veneration, but in the common conviction that Rome 
had been the field of their apostolate; history and 
archeology confirm it. 

The documents and monuments of the Primitive 
Church in Rome do not only disclose the presence of 
the two Apostles, but they also furnish clear allusions 
to Peter’s primacy. Christ is often represented in 
the act of consigning his law, but He invariably hands 


PUBLIC WORSHIP 275 


the sacred volume to Peter; he was looked upon as 
the custodian of divine revelation by Christ’s ap- 
pointment. 

Besides the proofs given above to substantiate a 
few points of Christian belief, there are many more 
evidences in the sacred volume to enlighten us on 
many other practices in the Primitive Church. The 
following are a few of them: 

The necessity of Baptism had been so emphasized 
by Jesus Christ that we need no tradition to admit 
that it was from the beginning administered to chil- 
dren. Further, the Church has always held that 
martyrdom, being the sublime expression of perfect 
love, was in its efficacy equal to Baptism for the re- 
mission of sins, and that when the Baptism of water 
could not be received, sincere desire took its place. 

We have seen the Apostles, Peter and John, ad- 
ministering a sacred rite, by which the Holy Ghost 
was given to the converts baptized by St. Philip; we 
call that rite the sacrament of Confirmation. 

St. Paul illustrates in his epistles the sacrifice of 
the New Law and the real presence of Christ under 
the appearances of bread and wine. 

The Apostles had received from Christ the power 
to bind and to loose, to forgive and to retain sins. 
They could not use that power, unless the offender 
submitted the matter, on which they were to pass 
sentence. It would be absurd and blasphemous to 
assert that the Apostles did not make use of the sub- 
lime power, conferred upon them in favor of sinful 
humanity. The confession of sins dernanded by St. 


276 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


James (V.16) “one to another” is the confession made 
to a presbyter, called in to anoint the sick. 

Jesus Christ did not remove the penalty of death 
in the new order of things established by Him, but 
He has eased the last struggle and sweetened the last 
agony. He had one of His Apostles to proclaim in 
writing this great help for both body and soul. 
We now call that sacred rite Extreme Unction 
(James V). 

As Christ willed that His Church should exist unto 
the end of time as a visible society, He appointed a 
ministry, to whom He gave graces commensurate 
with the obligations, which He placed upon them. 
By the imposition of hands the Apostles conveyed 
their powers in whole or in part to their lawful suc- 
cessors. 

As Christ had provided special graces to those, 
whom He sent as the Father had sent Him, so He im- 
pressed upon the matrimonial contract the sign of the 
sacred union between Himself and the Church to per- 
petuate the human race, all of whom could become 
His children by adoption. He chose especially the 
Apostle of the Gentiles to proclaim that sacred in- 
stitution to the world in writing. 

There is not the remotest doubt but that all the 
above practices were in use in the Primitive Church. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-FIRST 


THE GREAT GENERAL PERSECUTIONS IN THE DAYS 
OF THE APOSTLES 


WE do not know the exact number of Christians in 
the days of St. Peter. We may suppose that there 
were several thousands. Rome at that time counted 
about two million inhabitants. The Christian reli- 
gion in the beginning was not forbidden by law; the 
profession of it was free. The Roman law recognized 
the Jewish religion, and it found protectors in Julius 
Cesar and Augustus. There was an occasional up- 
rising against them, but always of short duration. 
In 42 Claudius confirmed all their privileges; he ex- 
pelled them from Rome in 49, but they soon returned, 
and in Nero’s time there was a great number of them. 
Their legal freedom extended to the Christians, who, 
but for a little difference, were looked upon as a 
Judaic sect. This applied not only to the converts 
from Judaism, but also to the converts from pagan- 
ism. 

The Jews had in the past often caused an uprising 
against the Apostles and their converts; they also 
appealed to the Roman courts to repress them, but 
their claims, as we have seen, were as a rule disre- 


garded. Claudius expelled from Rome all that were 
277 | 


278 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


known as Jews, and this included the Christians, but 
not as such. As the Jews could not move the courts 
against them, they excited the multitude. The Jew- 
ish converts were soon in the minority; the attention 
of the people was directed to the ever increasing num- 
ber of pagan converts. The Jews then started a cam- 
paign of suspicion, aversion, and hatred against 
them. In that way the legality of the Christian reli- 
gion soon disappeared. This led to the dilemma, 
either recognize it and permit it by law, like the Jew- 
ish religion, or proscribe it. Before we explain how 
some of the emperors solved it, we must briefly re- 
view the expansion of the Church at the time Nero 
came to the throne. 

Paul had been the great Apostle in the provinces 
depending on the empire, but it was Peter’s privilege 
to extend the Church and give the first bishops to 
the whole of Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Sicily, and 
the adjacent isles. Local traditions in various parts 
bear witness to his zeal and to the mission of his 
disciples. So was Paulinus the first bishop of Lucca, 
Romulus of Fiesole, Apollinaris of Ravenna, all dis- 
ciples of St. Peter. Paul on landing at Pozzuoli 
found Christians there; the first bishop of that place 
was Patrobas, whom he salutes in his letter to the 
Romans (XVI.14). In Campania the Christian re- 
ligion was propagated at an early date. Judging 
from an inscription found not so long ago we may 
infer that there were Christians in Pompeii, when 
that city was buried in 79 beneath the ashes of Ve- 
suvius. Photinus was the first bishop of Benevento, 


fos GREATS GENCRALYVPERSECUT IONS @279 


Priscus of Capua, Aspren of Naples; all disciples of 
St. Peter. Trophimus was sent by St. Peter as first 
bishop of Arles in Gaul. There is no doubt but that 
the chief of the Apostles had propagated the Chris- 
tian religion in various countries. The greater part 
of the Roman empire was dotted with Christian com- 
munities in the latter part of Nero’s reign. He was 
the first of the ten persecutors of the early days. We 
will treat of three only; Nero, Domitian, and Trajan; 
under whose reign the last survivor of the Apostles 
died. 

Nero was the son of Agrippina, the second wife of 
Claudius. He adopted him and gave him in mar- 
riage his own daughter, Octavia. Born in 37 Nero 
came to the throne in 54. The first years of his reign 
were auspicious in every way, but then his nobler dis- 
positions were stifled by sensuality and moral perver- 
sity. Nero practised his cruelty on his own mother, 
whom he had his freedmen club to death; he beheaded 
his wife to whom he owed the throne; he put out of 
the way in like fashion all that seemed to oppose him. 
The material welfare of the city declined with the 
Increasing extravagance of Nero; general misery 
reached its highest, when the terrible conflagration oc- 
curred in 64. The best contemporary authorities 
claim that Nero himself had the city put on fire; 
thousands perished in it. Bribed informers laid the 
blame on the Christians. A fierce persecution 
throughout the empire began. The property of the 
Christians was confiscated for the building of a new 
Rome. Tacitus in his Annals gives us the following 


280 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


description of what happened: The disaster happened 
whether by accident or by fraud on the part of the em- 
peror is uncertain; authors have asserted both. At 
that time Nero was at Antium, and did not return 
until the fire threatened his palace and the gardens of 
Mecenas. He then extended help to the poor people, 
but his purpose was fruitless, because the rumor 
spread that, when the city was on fire, he was sing- 
ing the destruction of Troja, comparing present ills 
with past disasters. The fire burnt itself out on the 
sixth day, but soon broke out again in another part. 
Nero ambitioned the glory of building a new city 
under his own name. Tacitus then relates the per- 
secution of the Christians. No human help, no lib- 
erality on the part of Nero, no sacrifices offered to the 
gods, could remove from the emperor the mark of in- 
famy, because it was believed that he had given the 
order to burn the city. To drown the rumor Nero 
made semblance of looking for the guilty parties and 
to torture them in a most atrocious manner. The 
Christians were pointed out; Christ their founder 
under the reign of Tiberius was tortured by Pontius 
Pilate. That dreadful superstition had broken out 
anew, not only in Judea, the birthplace of that evil, 
but in Rome itself, where all shame flocks and is held 
in honor. The first to suffer were those who con- 
fessed and then on their betrayal a great multitude 
were accused of complicity in the fire and condemned 
by the hatred of mankind. Nero added insult to the 
dying; he ordered them covered with the skins of wild 
beasts and to be torn to pieces by wild dogs, or to 


THE GREAT GENERAL PERSECUTIONS 281 


be nailed to crosses, or to be burnt alive to light up 
a dark night. Nero offered his gardens for such ex- 
hibitions, in which he mingled with the crowd, 
dressed up as a coachman, or standing on his chariot. 
A feeling of pity prevailed upon the common people; 
they felt that those so cruelly treated were not sac- 
rificed for the common good, but to satisfy the ven- 
geance of one. 

Writing about the same persecution Suetonius de- 
votes a chapter to the tortures of the Christians, 
whom he calls a class of people, belonging to a new 
and wicked superstition. 

From Tacitus’ account we gather that Nero first 
proceeded against the Christians for the burning of 
Rome, and that then the courts outlawed the profes- 
sion of the Christian religion, and sanctioned the dis- 
tinction between Christianity and Judaism. Most 
probably the persecution of Nero did not extend to 
the Jews, but was restricted to the Christians. The 
accusations of the Jews had made them odious in the 
eyes of the masses, and made them an easy target for 
Nero’s flatterers. From that same account we learn 
that a great multitude of Christians were martyred, 
but the exact number is unknown. The persecution 
kept up in all its fury up to Nero’s death in 68. The 
profession of Christianity was looked upon as a crime, 
and therefore it was persistently persecuted, even 
when the suspicion about the fire had been removed. 
It is probable that the persecution extended to the 
countries close to Rome, but not to the other prov- 
inces. We have already explained the martyrdom of 


282 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


Peter and Paul in the year 67, the year before Nero's 
death. Nero’s tyranny approached its overthrow. 
The Senate declared him an enemy to his country, 
and sentenced him to the death of a common mur- 
derer. He committed suicide in June, 68. 

The acts of Nero’s reign were rescinded after his 
death, but the persecution of the Christians remained 
permissible. The unpopularity of the Jews, and the 
destruction of the Holy City, deprived the Christians 
of any protection they might have enjoyed for be- 
ing mistaken for them. 

Between 68 and 81 the Church enjoyed relative 
peace; then the younger brother of Titus succeeded 
him on the imperial throne. 

Ancient writers tell us that Domitian gave many 
proofs of cruelty and murdered unjustly many noble 
and prominent men of the city. He then began to 
exile a numberless multitude of innocent men of the 
highest standing for the purpose of confiscating their 
property. At the end he gave himself out as the heir 
of Nero’s wickedness and of his war and hatred 
against God. He was the second to start a general 
persecution against the Christians, although his fa- 
ther, Vespasian, had never attempted anything in- 
jurious to them. 

Cassius another writer tells us that besides many 
others, Domitian killed his cousin Flavius Clemens, 
the consul, with his wife Flavia Domitilla, also a 
blood relation, for impiety to the gods; many were 
similarly condemned or had their property confis- 
cated. The causes of this persecution seem to have 


THE GREAT GENERAL PERSECUTIONS 283 


been the following; Domitian was a cruel tyrant, sus- 
picious and haughty, who claimed for himself the 
name of lord and god; ostentatiously he promoted 
the national worship of the Romans. The propaga- 
tion of Christianity was most displeasing to him, 
more so as many of his own family adhered to it. 
Perhaps even the third successor of St. Peter—st. 
Clement—belonged to it. Many of the noble fam- 
ilies had at that time accepted Christianity, as the 
discovered contemporary tombs in the catacombs 
prove. Domitian feared the coming of Christ and of 
His kingdom; he feared that descendants of David 
and relatives of Christ might endanger his throne. 
He had them brought from the East to Rome, but 
when he found out that they were poor and had to 
support themselves with hard work, as their callous 
hands showed, he dismissed them. If Domitian was 
so cruel towards the members of his own family, we 
may readily imagine how he behaved towards stran- 
gers. 

It is interesting to see how the primitive Christian 
nobility of Rome formed a brotherly society with the 
poor, the slaves of the great metropolis, exemplify- 
ing in their lives that true equality, as announced by 
Christ. 

St. John, the last survivor of the twelve Apostles, 
lived during part of the reign of another famous per- 
secutor of the Church—Trayjan. 

Trajan succeeded Nerva on January 28, 98. His 
attitude towards the Christians is best understood 
through a famous letter of Pliny the younger, prefect 


284 THECRRIMTPIVE*CHURGH 


of Bithynia, inquiring how to deal with the Chris- 
tians and from Trajan’s answer to it. 

The contents of that letter read as follows: It is 
my duty to refer to you, my Lord, all questions of 
which I doubt. Who can better dissipate my doubts 
and instruct my ignorance? I have never assisted at 
trials of Christians; hence I do not know whether and 
how to punish them or find them out. I have my 
serious doubts whether age makes any difference, or 
whether the weak differ from the strong, and whether 
they can be forgiven, or cease to be Christians to their 
advantage, and whether when their name is so far un- 
tarnished, misdeeds attributed to them are punish- 
able. Meanwhile I have followed this method in 
dealing with those that were brought before me: | 
have asked them whether they were Christians; | 
have repeated the question three times and always 
received the same answer; I threatened them, yet they 
persevered. [| had no doubt but that, whatever they 
said, their stubbornness should be punished. There 
have been others similarly demented; whom I ordered 
to be taken to Rome, because they were Roman citi- 
zens. There have been various other kinds. I have 
received an anonymous petition containing the names 
of those, who denied that they were or had been 
Christians. At my suggestion they called upon the 
gods, and they offered wine and incense to thy image, 
which I had brought together with the statues of the 
gods; moreover, they cursed Christ. They say that 
true Christians cannot be induced to do any of these 
things. I was of the opinion that these should be 


THE GREAT GENERAL PERSECUTIONS 285 


dismissed. Others have been tried by a judge and 
confessed that they had been Christians but had 
ceased to be three or twenty years ago. They af- 
firmed, however, that the sum total of their mistakes 
was as follows: They were wont to meet on a given 
day before sunrise; they would sing alternately to 
Christ as God, and pledge themselves not to commit 
a crime, not to steal or rob, not to commit adultery, 
not to deny their faith. After that they could leave, 
or meet again to take food. They did not assist at 
the meetings again, after I had forbidden at thy com- 
mand these superstitions. I thought it necessary to 
find out the truth from two servant-girls, by sub- 
mitting them to torture, but all I could discover was 
a bad and exaggerated superstition. After having 
explained these facts I take my recourse to thee for 
advice. Many of all ages, all orders, and of both 
sexes, are tried or will be. The contagion of this 
superstition is spread not only in the city, but in the 
hamlets and in the country; seemingly it can be 
stayed and corrected. It is apparent that our tem- 
ples are nearly abandoned, the services seldom re- 
peated, and the victims find no buyers. It is easy 
to think what a multitude of men could be punished, 
if need be. 

Trajan’s answer to the above letter was couched 
in the following terms: My dear Secundus. Thou 
hast acted properly in trying those that were brought 
before thee as Christians. No certain procedure in 
the matter can be established. There need be no sys- 
tematic search for them; if they are accused and con- 


286 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


victed, they should be punished. If they deny to be 
Christians and prove their denial by offering to our 
gods, they can be forgiven after a penance, although 
the suspicion be that they were formerly Christians. 
In regard to the anonymous petition, there 1s no occa- 
sion to prosecute; it is a bad example and not limited 
to our days. 

From the two letters we gather that Christianity 
had very many adherents in Bithynia, in the country 
as well as in the cities. The emperor restrained the 
persecution in so far that there was to be no system- 
atic search, and at the same time he officially de- 
clared that Christians are outlawed and have no legal 
existence, and that they may be brought to trial and 
convicted on the strength of existing laws. 

Trajan as a persecutor of the Church had seven 
successors, the one surpassing the other in cruelty. 

We have limited our remarks concerning persecu- 
tions to those that were waged against Christianity 
in the Roman empire. Most of the Apostles were 
sent to countries independent of the empire; as all 
of them died martyrs, we may suppose that they and 
their converts were persecuted. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND 
ST. JOHN AND THE END OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE 


St. JoHN was called, with Peter and James, a pillar 
of the Church (Gal. II.9). Among the four Cherubs 
who in the prophecy of Ezechiel (1.10) represent the 
four evangelists, St. John has always been likened to 
the eagle. All the sacred writers have drawn from 
the source of eternal wisdom; Paul had even been 
taken up to the third heaven and heard mysterious 
words; John rose higher and heard in the supreme 
cause of all the one Word, by whom all has been cre- 
ated. His virginal purity made him an angel in the 
flesh. He was the patriarch of all the faithful, be- 
cause he survived all the other Apostles. He was an 
Apostle, a bishop, a doctor, an evangelist, and a 
prophet. He was a martyr, because he endured with 
Christ all the horrors of the crucifixion, so far as he 
was able, and because he suffered the tortures of 
death, from which he was saved by miracle. He was 
not beheaded like Paul, nor crucified like Peter, but 
he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. Like the 
three children in the Babylonian furnace, he escaped 
unhurt with renewed vigor and beauty. This hap- 
pened in Rome at the Latin gate under the reign of 


Domitian. At the same time John was scourged and 
287 


288 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


had his head shaved as a mark of infamy, before he 
was sent into exile to the island of Patmos, whose in- 
habitants he converted. The martyr’s death was the 
chalice which Christ promised to all His Apostles. 
John alludes to it in his Apocalypse (1.9). John was 
the Apostle of love all through his life. He gave 
proofs of it not only by founding churches every- 
where, but also by taking an individual interest in 
the most degraded of sinners. Eusebius has left us 
an illustration of it in the case of a young man, whom 
John had recommended to the special care of a bishop, 
and who through bad company had become the chief 
of a band of robbers. On a visit to the bishop, John 
demanded the young man, the soul of a brother. The 
bishop regretfully had to confess that he was dead to 
God and had become a robber chief. John on hear- 
ing this, tore his garments, burst out in sighs and 
ironically remarked to the bishop that he was a fine 
guardian of his brother. He ordered that he procure 
a horse and a guide. John mounted the horse and 
left the city in haste. The guards of the robbers’ 
camp saw him coming. John demanded to see their 
chief. He came fully armed, but on noticing his 
spiritual father, and ashamed of himself he took to 
flight. John forgetting his age (he was over ninety) 
spurred his horse and went after him and cried out: 
My son, why avoid your father? why be afraid of 
an unarmed old man? Fear not, you have still the 
hope of life; as Christ died for us, I am willing to die 
for you. Halt! Have confidence in me, because 
Christ sent me. The wretch heard him, halted, with 


THE END OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE 289 


downcast eyes threw away his arms, and fell at the 
knees of the old man, who came to him. His sighs 
and his tears betokened sorrow and enabled St. John 
to restore him to the communion of the Church. 

After Christ had foretold to Peter by what manner 
of death he would glorify God, Peter noticed John 
and he asked Christ what would become of him. 
Christ answered: ‘So | will have him to remain till 
I come” (Jo. XXI.23). Some writers in the remote 
past have drawn from these words of Christ the con- 
clusion that St. John, like Henoch and Elias, is not 
dead, but has like them his mortal body somewhere in 
earthly paradise, and will return with them at the 
end of the world to preach against the Antichrist, 
who will put him to death. They add that by a spe- 
cial privilege he sees and enjoys God. Most of the 
ancient writers, however, assert and the whole Church 
admits that St. John is dead and reigns with Christ 
and the other Blessed in heaven. 

We know that the Church, like the twilight and the 
sun, gradually grows to the perfect knowledge of the 
mysteries of faith. Hence the sacred writers of the 
New Testament have written more clearly, more dis- 
tinctly and sublimely than Moses and the Prophets 
of the Old Testament. St. John was the author of 
the last inspired book and added the crown to the 
work. 

The love of God and of the neighbor was the in- 
spiration of his whole life. In extreme old age, when 
unable to make long speeches he would repeat at all 
the meetings of the faithful: “My little children, 


290 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 


love one another.” When asked by his disciples why 
he always repeated the same, he gave the following 
answer worthy of the Apostle of love: Because it is 
the commandment of Christ, and if it be kept, it is 
sufficient. 

After removing Domitian from the throne, the 
Senate selected Nerva as emperor, with the consent 
of the army; he reigned from 96 to 98. On the ad- 
vice of the Senate the new emperor rescinded the acts 
of Domitian and recalled those who had been sent in 
exile. In consequence of this general amnesty St. 
John was released from the island of Patmos, and he 
returned to Ephesus. He brought order out of the 
chaos created by the persecution of Domitian, and 
by the heresies, chiefly of the Cerinthians and the 
Ebionites, appointed proper ministers for the various 
churches of Asia. He lived in Ephesus up to the. 
end of his life between 101 and 104, and was buried 
near that city. 

St. John, being the last of the inspired writers, 
could have left us a catalogue of all the inspired writ- 
ers of the Old and the New Testament, but he did not. 
He knew that it was safe to leave that to the teaching 
Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and 
that those appointed to rule the church of God would 
be able at all times to separate the cockle from the 
wheat. 

From the remotest days of the Christian era other 
writings than those in the Canon of Holy Scriptures 
have been circulated and attributed to the Apostles. 
This was partly due to local traditions, partly to a 


THE END OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE 291 


pious fraud used for the purpose of adding authority 
and influence. 

With the last Apostle, disappearing from the scene 
of this world, the apostolic age closed. 

The Lord is ever merciful; His grace and His power 
will be for ever manifested in His elect, but in the fu- 
ture His grace will not be poured out through the ful- 
ness of miracles, as in the days of the Apostles. 
Human prudence will fail in all its calculations; the 
wisdom of the world will appear foolishness. A re- 
ligion humbling pride by its mysteries, mortifying 
the senses, imposing self-abnegation, predicting per- 
secution, and promising great indeed but invisible 
joys; a religion preached by poor and ignorant Gali- 
leans will be embraced by Jew and Gentile. The Jew 
will give up his belief in the earthly kingdom of the 
Messiah, the Greek the shadow of pagan philosophy, 
Rome will destroy its gods and bend the knee to the 
Nazarene. 

Who can deny the visible intervention of Christ in 
the institution, of which He is the invisible Head? 


THE END 


ee sien caine oh 


gg 


hk 


be - 
oe 


BOL! aa 
Kad. pie PUNE 
Tea 

xe 


} 





INDEX 


A 


Apostles scourged, 54; disper- 
sion of, 110; little known, 71; 
work and death, 71; writings, 
72 

Ananias, 79 

’ Agabus the Prophet, 119 

Annas, 50 

Ananias and Saphira, 40 

Apostolic age close of, 29] 


B 


Barnabas, 82, 114, 39 

Bible or written word—New 
Testament did not exist first 
years, 103; not necessary, 
103; why New Testament 
was written, 103; Inspired 
writers, 103; first Christians 
had none, 105; difficulties in 
interpreting, 107; Bible and 
oral Tradition, 108 

Baptism, 34 


C 


Church Perfect society, 1; inde- 
pendent, 3; visible head after 
Christ, 8; one, 30; differs 
from Synagogue, 35; econom- 
ic organization, 39; Persecu- 
tions of, 46; hierarchy, 94, 
Bishops, Priests and Deacons, 
94: at Ephesus, 178; Primi- 
tive churches, 269 

Cemeteries, 270 


Christians dispersed, 57; name, 
113; religious life of first, 31 

Confirmation, 068 

Chronology, 70 

Christianity its demands, 29; 
challenge from Judaism, 51 

Caiphas, 50 

Communion frequent, 37 

Ceremonies, 265 

Collections, 45 


D 


Damascus, 76 

Dates of important events, 91 
Deacons ordination, 43, 99 
Deaconesses, 100 

Denis St., 171 


E 


Eunuch of Ethiopia, 69 

Eucharist, 36, 265; Sacrifice, 
266 

Epicureans, 167 


G 


Gamaliel, 53 
Gentiles first 
them, 85 


efforts among 


H 


Herods, 121 
Heresies Simon the Magician, 
257; Gnostics, 259; Judaizers, 


/ 293 


294 
260; Menander, 261; Cerin- 
thus, 261; Eloionites, 261; 
Nicolaites, 262 

J 


Jerusalem Council of, 149; dis- 
cussions and decrees, 153; 
president of Council, 152; de- 
struction of, 252 

James St. death, 122 

Jobn St. apostle of love, 288; 
death of, 290 


We 
Liturgy, 264 


M 


Mary, the mother of Jesus, 58; 
her death and burial, 59; St. 
Denis eye witness, 60; St. 
Thomas absent at funeral, 60; 
devotion to, 61; assumption, 
63; paintings representing, 62 

Missionary efforts, 64 

Missionaries lay, 70 

Mural paintings, 271 

Mamertine prison, 272 


N 
Nazarites, 175 


O 


Olympiads, 92 
Old Testament prescriptions, 
195 


P 


Paul St. conversion, 74; ac- 
counts of conversion, 77; im- 
portance of conversion, 80; 


Index 


Commission, 81; first three 
years after conversion, 8l— 


First tour, 127; episcopal 
consecration, 128; at his 
trade, 129; first recorded 
speech of, 133; looked upon 
as a god, 138; sudden 
change, 139; Second tour, 
156; at Philippi, 162; at 


Athens, 166; speech in Are- 
opagus, 169; at Corinth, 172; 
at Jerusalem, 176; at Ephe- 
sus, 17/8; Paul «andi the 
craft of silversmiths, 182; 
third tour, 186; miracle, 188; 
at Miletus, 189; last visit to 
Jerusalem, 194; nephew of, 
200; trip to Caesarea, 201; on 
way to Rome, 211; ship- 
wrecked, 215; Paul and the 
viper, 216; at Reggis, 218; in 
Rome, 220; martyrdom, 225 

Peter St. First visible Head, 8; 
Infallible Faith, 12; Peter 
and Paul, 19; First sermon, 
29; esteem for, 52; Peter 
and: Cornelius)). 80200 
Lydda, 85; at Joppe, 86; 
Primacy, 9 and 274; Pri- 
macy promised and con- 
ferred, 14; Exercise of Pri- 
macy, 15; objections to 
primacy answered, 16; Vision, 
87; Bishop of Antioch, 118; 
Imprisonment, 123; Went to 
Rome, 126; Peter in Rome, 
141; Paul sees Peter, 82; 
martyrdom, 225 

Persecution First, 46; motive 
of, 52; first general, 56; 
Roman, 279; Nero, 279; 
Domitian, 282; Trajan, 283 

Pentecost First Christian, 23; 
who were present? 24; gift of 


Index 


languages, 26; repeated, 28 
Philip, the deacon, 64 
Pharisees, 47 
Popes of first century, St. 

Peter, 247; St. Limus, 248; 

St. Cletus, 249; St. Clement, 

249; recognised during life- 

time of St. John, 250 


R 


Revelation Freedom of accept- 
ing, 29 
Rome burning of, 224 


S 


Sacraments, 275 

Sadducees, 47 

Samaritans schismatics, 64; 
converts, 66 

Sanhedrim, 49 


295 


Sergius Paul, 131 

Simon the Magician, 66 
Soothsayers and Spuiritists, 161 
Stephen first martyr, 55 
Stoics, 167 

Sunday celebration of, 187 


4} 


Thomas St., 60 
Temple one, 33 
Thecla, 136 


W 


Women abettors of heresy, 135 

Worship public, 264 

Writers of New Testament, St. 
Matthew, 231; St. Mark, 233; 
St. Luke, 234; St. John, 235; 
St. Paul, 238; St. James, 240; 
St. Peter, 242; St. Jude, 244 


GAYLORD 


DATE DUE 


3 > eee 
3 alee 





———S$=——— 


| PRINTEDINU.S.A. 


~ e a 


a. 


= 


- 
a 





Keele res. 


SAS 


cs 


al 


Gr te 


pa ea Set, 


a 


by, 
‘ oe) 
Rs 


AAS ARAN 
ANGRY 


Cem 


aN 


—- 
St 


Pe. 
ae 


4) 
] 


+S i Ke 
site 
AY 


Ro 
, 


eiett 


ese 


a 


ak 
ss 


cree 
Sots 


= 


Sent ene 
= 


at 


= 

“ 
Tea ed 
am oe 


Se 


sree oa”. 
as 9 Sue | 
Fer MS 


< 


=~ 


i 
ex 


Fae 
aes 


= 
Se 
encene 
Sie 
~ 


a EXD 


= 


Ve 


f 
f ) 
«" j by ; 
ay) ON ici 
, Systane \ 
1 oy i 


ae 
¢ 
4448 


i 


“ 
* 


nota ran eo 


atte | 
ease 
3 


a 
ioe 


pea 


Sea 


as 
= 


— 
ae, 
et 
Sa 
a 


Sa25 


‘ 
Were 


tact 
ie 


i 
ni 
4 


TIE 
- 
AM i) 


Sere 


ite 


ui 
"\ 
) a 
i 
Sa ON ELAN 
BAC? 
Vey 
vy} 
Heat 
ey 
NWN 
PLAS 
fay AY 
» 


Sth 
4 


BW960 .L29 


Il 


Ok 
ATA 


M 
+ 4 
PN s ‘ 
PPD AS paws 
‘, 


4 
‘ 


INI 


The primitive church; or, The church in 
Princeton Theological Seminary—Speer Li 


| 


1 1012 00152 0909 


ee 


ne 


;, 
5. 
ish 


¥," 


1, 


‘ 


' 
Atty 
eerste O 


as 
hh 


Vike 


i 
nish 
sane 
ive) 
’ 





